NEW YORK — Almost three hours before Sunday’s nationally televised game between the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden, about 50 huddled fans gathered outside the “world’s famous arena,” eagerly awaiting entry.
The chants of “Let’s Go Knicks” were loud enough to give people who were walking by in midtown Manhattan bundled up because of the frigid temperatures a sarcastic side-eye.
But the frenzy outside the arena isn’t for a playoff game, because it was only Feb 1. The anticipation hit a fever pitch, even though the mercury hit a balmy 15 degrees. For an average ticket price of $912, according to TickPick (the highest since Kobe Bryant’s final game in 2016), they better be diehard fans or scalpers.
Those screaming Knicks fans couldn’t care less about how they look or sound, and that is great news for NBC, which broadcast the game to kick off its “Sunday Night Basketball” package with a doubleheader. (The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets capped off the night)
Two of the NBA’s most storied franchises, the game’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, who could be making his last trip to New York unless these teams meet in the Finals, Luka Doncic, this season’s leading scorer, and a franchise so championship-starved that any playoff elimination feels like a funeral, are enough storylines to keep any fan tuned in.
Those in attendance got their money’s worth, with the Knicks winning their sixth straight overall in a 112-100 victory.
Make no mistake about it, that’s what NBC wants, and viewers will see that the production and the feel is going to be like that of the network’s main sports cash cow, “Sunday Night Football,” broadcast television’s No. 1 rated program for the past decade and a half.
Mike Tirico, the play-by-play extraordinaire for “Sunday Night Football” and next week’s Super Bowl 60, along with his Winter Olympic hosting duties, will call the games, and analysts Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford are also on board for the ride.
The look and feel of ‘Sunday Night Basketball’ and NBC’s $2.5 billion annual investment make this another showcase for the Peacock network, but during the first installment, it doesn’t have the standalone “all eyes on me” mentality of its football counterparts, as there were four other night games on the Feb. 1 NBA schedule.
“I tell people all the time, if you get a chance to go back in time, some of my best moments were on this network,” Miller told USA TODAY Sports. “Obviously, in this building, and to have a chance to do a 360, and wouldn’t say end my career. But it looks like it, you know, this would be my last swan song. I was on that other network for 18, 19 years, and now, to be back here, um, it’s something that’s truly a walk down memory lane for me.”
Miller, a self-proclaimed early bird because of his military brat upbringing, starts his gameday with a workout and then preps his storyboard, which takes about 2.5 hours, and whether the game is a blowout or a close affair, there will be plenty of things to talk about.
“I like to be overprepared that way,” Miller said, acknowledging the fans’ complaints of his perceived bias or that he talks too much during telecasts.
Tesh is back and has been since NBC’s October return to NBA broadcasting, and as Carrie Underwood prepared fans for “Sunday Night Football,” Grammy-winning musician Lenny Kravitz handles those opening musical duties for “Sunday Night Basketball.”
“We have a base that’s already there. Look, we are great storytellers on this network. I think that’s always been the case, whether it’s football, basketball, or whatever sport there is,” Miller said. “I think that will continue when you’ve got one of the best in the business, like Mike Tirico and Jamal and myself, who’s, you know, I played 18 years, he played 19, so we have almost 40 years of experience between us. Either you love us, or you hate us, or we’re still gonna talk to you as if you’re one of us.”
But the quarterback of the entire show is no doubt Tirico, who Frank DiGraci, NBC Sports’ coordinating producer, says he is the best, most versatile announcer in the business today.
“To me, that is the best sports television production out of any sport, on any network in this country. When they (NBC President Rick Cordella and Sam Flood, the Executive Producer & President, Production of NBC Sports) came to us to say, we want to do ‘Sunday Night Basketball,’ I was like, ‘let’s go,’” DiGraci said. “And that’s our vision to just transfer ‘Sunday Night Football’ and the high level, and the quality that that brings, and just keep it going. Okay. And that’s our goal, right? Tonight, starting tonight and going forward.”
“Sunday Night Basketball” will also have a feel of importance, with the studio crew on-site for each game.
The pregame crew of ‘Basketball Night in America’ host Maria Taylor, analysts Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, with special correspondent Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Bob Costas, were on hand for the tilt from New York
But Miller, one of the Knicks’ biggest villains during his playing days, wouldn’t have it any other way and says he still enjoys the way fans despise him for something he did 30 years ago.
“People think that I’ve only won in this building. I’ve lost a lot in here as well,” Miller said, as evidenced by his 33% winning percentage at the Garden. “I’ve had my heart broken in this building a lot, too. So, it’s a two-way street, but I always tell people that Knicks fans, um, are truly a separate breed of what fandom is all about.”
So, it was part nostalgia with Miller, getting booed at every turn pre-game, part moving forward for NBC, and an opening that was a resounding success, with the hopes of dominating Sunday nights for the foreseeable future.
