The NBA and ABC begin a new primetime series this week with the new eight-game NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC package. It marks the first time that the NBA will have a regular season over the air primetime package in its history. It’s hard to believe that it’s taken this long as the NBA has had various primetime specials in the past on ABC, CBS and NBC, but never a consistent package like MLB did with Monday Night Baseball on NBC and ABC; and Sunday, Monday and Thursday Night Football on NBC, ABC and CBS respectively.
Now as the NBA enters uncharted waters, it’s amazing to look back at the history of the Association to see that before this year, a network hasn’t ventured into primetime regularly especially when the league’s popularity began to rise in the 1980’s. Of course, the NBA has been more of a cable sport in primetime dating back to the 1980’s with USA, ESPN, TBS and TNT.
Jeff Haggar at Classic TV Sports researched the number of broadcast network NBA primetime games and discovered that up until now, there were just a handful of primetime games on the league’s various networks dating back to 1969:
Mon 12/21/70 – Lakers @ Bucks, 9 pm, ABC
Sat 11/26/88 – Lakers @ Pistons, 8:30 pm, CBS
Wed 12/25/91 – Celtics @ Bulls, 9 pm, NBC
Fri 12/25/92 – Knicks @ Bulls, 9 pm, NBC
Sat 12/25/93 – Magic @ Bulls, 8:30 pm, NBC
Wed 12/25/96 – Pistons @ Bulls, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 4/19/97 – Knicks @ Bulls, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 4/18/98 – Knicks @ Bulls, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 4/17/99 – Lakers @ Jazz, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 4/24/99 – Lakers @ Spurs, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 12/25/99 – Knicks @ Pacers, 7 pm, NBC
Sat 12/25/99 – Spurs @ Lakers, 9:30 pm, NBC
Sat 1/22/00 – two regional games, 8:30pm, NBC
Sat 4/8/00 – Spurs @ Lakers, 8:30pm, NBC
Sat 4/15/00 – two regional games, 8:30 pm, NBC
Tue 12/25/01 – 76ers @ Lakers, 8:30 pm, NBC
Sat 12/30/00 – four regional games, 7:30 pm, NBC
Tue 12/25/01 – 76ers @ Lakers, 8:30 pm, NBC
Wed 12/25/02 – Kings @ Lakers, 8:30 pm, ABC
Thu 12/25/03 – Rockets @ Lakers, 8:30 pm, ABC
As you can see, NBC had most of the primetime games on network TV and many were on Christmas Night. ABC did carry on the Christmas night tradition in the first two years of its TV contract in the 21st Century, but dropped it afterwards.
Haggar also has some interesting facts about the NBA in primetime on network television:
- The first prime time network telecast was the 1968 NBA All-Star Game on ABC.
- Game 7 of the 1970 Finals marks the first championship series prime time telecast. Prior to that, ABC had aired a few Finals games at 10 pm.
- In 1987, CBS aired a pre-Finals playoff game in prime time for the first time since 1976. At least one pre-Finals playoff game has been in prime time on an OTA network every season since then.
- The All-Star Game received prime time OTA treatment in 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1973-1976. For the other two years in this range, the game started at 10 pm ET.
For this new primetime package, ESPN will produce the games and have Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy on the call with Lisa Salters roaming the sidelines for most of the series.
Here’s the entire schedule which begins this weekend:
NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC schedule:
| Date | Time (ET) | Game |
| Sat, Jan. 23 | 8:30 p.m. | Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers* |
| Sat, Jan. 30 | 8:30 p.m. | San Antonio Spurs at Cleveland Cavaliers |
| Sat, Feb. 20 | 8:30 p.m. | Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers* |
| Sat, Feb. 27 | 8:30 p.m. | Golden State Warriors at Oklahoma City Thunder |
| Sat, March 5 | 8:30 p.m. | Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls* |
| Sat, March 12 | 8:30 p.m. | Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs* |
| Sat, March 19 | 8:30 p.m. | Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs |
| Sat, April 9 | 8:30 p.m. | Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls |
*Also available on ESPN Deportes
