2000s basketball and “Inside the NBA”
I grew up during a great era of NBA basketball.
It was the year 2000. My family and I had just moved to a tiny 2-bedroom apartment in Gardena from the Philippines - we were officially residents of greater Los Angeles.
My parents were busy being immigrants: hustling for money, raising very confused kids, learning English, searching for community in a strange land.... Leisure was rare. Sometimes it was spent watching a boxing match, other times a game of Lakers basketball.
We were evidently at the epicenter of the Shaq/Kobe/Phil dynasty. Quite frankly, I was too young to understand fully what I was witnessing. But I had a feeling that my mom’s exaggerrated yelling and dad’s serious scrutiny of the game meant we were experiencing a cultural movement together. Before we knew it, a three-peat happened - thus began my lifelong commitment to being a Lakers fan.
Man, remember those moments? All those Kobe-Shaq alley-oops? Robert “Big Shot Bob” Horry’s clutch shots? Derek’s .4?
My love for the game kept growing. And growing.
I secretly loved the 2004 Pistons. Big Ben in the paint. Chauncy, Rip, Tayshaun - they played a great brand of defensive basketball. I wanted to hate the Spurs but I couldn’t. Tim, Tony, and Ginobili together were too charming. I loved Kevin Garnett’s attitude. I know there was some drama, but I think he looked best in a Wolves jersey. Yao and TMac were fun. Pheonix Nash was brilliant. All those impossible mid-rangers from Dirk were magical.
Another scoring title for AI. A back-to-back for the Kobe/Pau Lakers. Lebron, Melo, and DWade were coming up. Rapidly.
Look at all these names; there were so many personas, characters, and personalities. Looking back now, I think they were really the cultural driver as to why we’re so nostalgic of this era. Teams that didn’t have big names were actually terrible, painful to watch, and disproportionately worse than the worst teams in today’s NBA.
But, this got me thinking. Superstar names drove up the entertainment value of major sports programming of the time, conveniently preceding the internet virality and proliferation that we know today. During a time when one of the only consumer media channels was television, the build-up of anticipation had fans itching to see their favorite athletes.
I think about TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” which is currently facing uncertainty due to conflicts with broadcasting rights. Why was this show so great? The programming personalities of Ernie and Kenny were smart; adding Barkley made the show perfect.
The banter and commentary ranged from hilarious to controversial, and there were plenty of names - Kobe, Tim Duncan, AI, Dirk, Garnett - in their artillery to bounce off. Better yet, there was very few compeitition for our attention. The only competition I remembered existed in prime-time television: American Idol, Survivor, LOST, and other addictive shows.
Then we grew up with them.
At this point, “Inside the NBA” is sunsetting. Outside the actual logistics of contractual obligations, this had to have happened. We still remember its legacy and collection of cultural moments. We still honor it. We still wish the feeling lasted forever. But the sports media landscape has changed drastically. Now we have podcasts, short-form videos, live and on-demand shows on various streaming platforms, tweets from international voices, highly branded instagram profiles from basketball personalities. This ending feels a lot like watching the last year of our favorite player’s career before finally retiring - but we knew it was bound to happen.
The question remains though - what’s the future of sports commentary media?
I grew up during a great era of NBA basketball.
It was the year 2000. My family and I had just moved to a tiny 2-bedroom apartment in Gardena from the Philippines - we were officially residents of greater Los Angeles.
My parents were busy being immigrants: hustling for money, raising very confused kids, learning English, searching for community in a strange land.... Leisure was rare. Sometimes it was spent watching a boxing match, other times a game of Lakers basketball.
We were evidently at the epicenter of the Shaq/Kobe/Phil dynasty. Quite frankly, I was too young to understand fully what I was witnessing. But I had a feeling that my mom’s exaggerrated yelling and dad’s serious scrutiny of the game meant we were experiencing a cultural movement together. Before we knew it, a three-peat happened - thus began my lifelong commitment to being a Lakers fan.
Man, remember those moments? All those Kobe-Shaq alley-oops? Robert “Big Shot Bob” Horry’s clutch shots? Derek’s .4?
My love for the game kept growing. And growing.
I secretly loved the 2004 Pistons. Big Ben in the paint. Chauncy, Rip, Tayshaun - they played a great brand of defensive basketball. I wanted to hate the Spurs but I couldn’t. Tim, Tony, and Ginobili together were too charming. I loved Kevin Garnett’s attitude. I know there was some drama, but I think he looked best in a Wolves jersey. Yao and TMac were fun. Pheonix Nash was brilliant. All those impossible mid-rangers from Dirk were magical.
Another scoring title for AI. A back-to-back for the Kobe/Pau Lakers. Lebron, Melo, and DWade were coming up. Rapidly.
Look at all these names; there were so many personas, characters, and personalities. Looking back now, I think they were really the cultural driver as to why we’re so nostalgic of this era. Teams that didn’t have big names were actually terrible, painful to watch, and disproportionately worse than the worst teams in today’s NBA.
But, this got me thinking. Superstar names drove up the entertainment value of major sports programming of the time, conveniently preceding the internet virality and proliferation that we know today. During a time when one of the only consumer media channels was television, the build-up of anticipation had fans itching to see their favorite athletes.
I think about TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” which is currently facing uncertainty due to conflicts with broadcasting rights. Why was this show so great? The programming personalities of Ernie and Kenny were smart; adding Barkley made the show perfect.
The banter and commentary ranged from hilarious to controversial, and there were plenty of names - Kobe, Tim Duncan, AI, Dirk, Garnett - in their artillery to bounce off. Better yet, there was very few compeitition for our attention. The only competition I remembered existed in prime-time television: American Idol, Survivor, LOST, and other addictive shows.
Then we grew up with them.
At this point, “Inside the NBA” is sunsetting. Outside the actual logistics of contractual obligations, this had to have happened. We still remember its legacy and collection of cultural moments. We still honor it. We still wish the feeling lasted forever. But the sports media landscape has changed drastically. Now we have podcasts, short-form videos, live and on-demand shows on various streaming platforms, tweets from international voices, highly branded instagram profiles from basketball personalities. This ending feels a lot like watching the last year of our favorite player’s career before finally retiring - but we knew it was bound to happen.
The question remains though - what’s the future of sports commentary media?
Written: Wednesday, May 15, 2024