Last NBA season was, among the most passionate fans, marred by a marked negativity and lack of hype from broadcast partners and league affiliates.
From the prolonged farewell to the NBA on TNT to constant chatter about TV ratings, the All-Star game, and the face of the league, to the ongoing debate about load management and style of play, it felt as if the league’s best players and commissioner Adam Silver were always fielding questions about something wrong with the sport.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the NBA will right at least one of those wrongs this season.
Per Charania, the NBA will once again paint the Larry O’Brien championship trophy onto each home team’s court for the NBA Finals alongside a decal with the classic NBA Finals script. The once-hallowed tradition of the painted trophy will return for the first time since 2009, after ESPN digitally imposed a very tiny version on the court last spring.
The small effects may not seem like much, but fans were irate last June when the Finals did not display these on-court insignias or usual features like live pregame introductions or the old NBA on ABC music. When asked about the disappearance of the Finals insignias last season, Silver said he had not given it much thought.
This is all part of a continued push by NBA media and a vocal contingent of fans online who feel that the league has deemphasized features that made games feel bigger and more important. Just this week, NBC relaunched its NBA coverage after two decades off the air to extreme fanfare driven largely by exciting branding, music, and production value.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.