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The New 'Shredded' Version of 'Roundball Rock' Goes Extremely Hard

John Tesh went into the lab and emerged with a song that rocks.
Kyle Koster|
John Tesh has been in the lab.
John Tesh has been in the lab.

There's been one thing on everyone's mind since it became clear NBC would once again be broadcasting NBA games and it's the return of John Tesh's iconic Roundball Rock. So much so that the conversation actually got a bit annoying and sports bloggers pushed back. But such takes should be publicly disavowed because Tesh teamed up with the Dan Le Batard Show to debut a new "shredded" version of the theme song and it slaps extremely hard.

What, exactly, does "shredded" mean? That soaring guitars and high-octane riffs will miraculously marry the league's past and present into one minute of pure excellence.

The stunning debut on an otherwise sleepy Thursday morning harkens back to Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. This is a intro that pushes the envelope and challenges audiences to get on NBC's new level.

Sometimes it pays to mess with perfection. To stand on the shoulders of greatness to build a Roundball that rocks even more.

Published | Modified
Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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