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The Playoff Schedule Shows How Little NBA and Its Broadcast Partners Care About the Fans

Bizarre start times, constantly changing networks and announcer crews have become a postseason staple this year.
Jimmy Traina|
You had to be a Peacock subscriber to see the Timberwolves overcome Victor Wembanyama’s huge performance in Game 1.
You had to be a Peacock subscriber to see the Timberwolves overcome Victor Wembanyama’s huge performance in Game 1. | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

1. It’s bad enough that NBA fans never know which network or platform a playoff game is airing on, but now they have to deal with crazy overlaps, prohibiting them from watching full games.

On Monday, NBC decided to air the Sixers-Knicks game at 8 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. That ended up working out: Because the game was such a blowout, it wasn’t a problem for fans to tune into the start of the Timberwolves-Spurs game, which started at 9:30 p.m. and aired exclusively on Peacock.

Tonight, is the real middle finger from NBC. Cavs-Pistons will begin at 7 p.m. on Peacock with the Lakers and Thunder tipping off at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.

I fully understand that NBC couldn’t care less about the Cavs-Pistons series, especially compared to Lakers-Thunder. The network wants as much as it can get of the Lakers in prime time. But this is just a slap in the fan to the die-hard NBA fan who wants to watch playoff basketball.

Meanwhile, thanks to the NBA’s new broadcast deals, fans have to go on a wild goose chase every night to find the games. For example, the first four games of the Sixers-Knicks series is airing on four different platforms:

Game 1: NBC
Game 2: ESPN
Game 3: Prime Video
Game 4: ABC

The other problem with this scheduling is that viewers get no continuity with broadcasters. Unfortunately, nothing will change going forward since this is just the first year of a new 11-year broadcast deal.

2. If you missed it yesterday, I wrote a column about the legendary voice of the Yankees, John Sterling. There were nonstop tributes for Sterling all day Monday.

• White Sox radio voice Len Casper used Sterling’s signature home run call when Munetaka Murakami went deep against the Angels.

• Mets radio play-by-play voice Keith Raad used Sterling’s signature game-ending call after New York defeated the Rockies.

• Meanwhile, the Yankees piped in Sterling’s classic “Ball game over, Yankees win, theeeeeee Yankees win” into the stadium last night after New York finished a sweep of the Orioles.

I also wanted to mention that Sterling joined me three times on SI Media With Jimmy Traina. The first interview was in May 2018, and you can listen to it here.

In 2019, I went out to Yankee Stadium and interviewed Sterling and his radio partner, Suzyn Waldman, together.

Finally, Sterling was nice enough to come on the podcast in 2024 after he announced his retirement.

3. Rough news here via Sports Business Journal. Kenny Smith will be missing three upcoming installments of Inside the NBA on ESPN and Draymond Green will be filling in for him.

We don’t get episodes of Inside the NBA as frequently as we used to, so when it airs, we need the whole cast together. If Smith has to miss shows, though, why not just go with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal? Why does there have to be a fourth cast member? There is no need at all for Green to be shoehorned into the show.

4. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports that Dave Pasch is a candidate to be the play-by-play voice on ESPN’s No. 2 NFL crew this season. This would be an excellent choice and an upgrade over Chris Fowler, who previously held the position.

5. Oh my God, this is so WACKY. A joke about Peyton and Eli wearing quarter-zips is so original and creative.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about working again with Peter Schrager at the NFL draft, what it’s been like since ESPN took over NFL Network, and fooling people into thinking he had an on-site fight with WWE superstar Seth Rollins.

In addition, Brandt talks about why he’s in favor of studio shows being on-site, whether he’d like to branch out into covering other sports, why it was so cool to work with Mel Kiper Jr., recently putting on a concert with his childhood friends, his favorite Curb Your Enthusiasm moments and much more.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include Netflix’s Hulk Hogan documentary, Dianna Russini’s alleged playlist for Mike Vrabel, a shady practice by the Mets regarding tickets, a bagel store disaster, a Costco disaster and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: So much of the John Sterling talk over the past 24 hours has been about his time with the Yankees. What everyone should know is that Sterling was a great NBA broadcaster as well.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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