Bob Costas, Doug Collins and Mike Fratello never all called a game together when they were teammates at NBC a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n
That’ll change on Tuesday \u2014 in a throwback night for the network’s NBA coverage.<\/p>\n
NBC has announced plans for Costas, Collins and Fratello to handle the courtside duties Tuesday when Victor Wembanyama \u2014 who wasn’t even born when that trio was involved in NBC’s NBA coverage in the early 2000s \u2014 and the San Antonio Spurs take on Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n
Jim Gray will be the sideline reporter for that game, and NBC said it plans to incorporate \u201creminiscent and familiar components\u201d from how games aired in the 1995-96 season, including the graphics package.<\/p>\n
Costas said he’s looking forward to the game \u2014 but being around NBC colleagues again, to him, will be the highlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all due respect to Victor Wembanyama and to Joel Embiid and to both teams, it\u2019s the reunion,\u201d Costas said. \u201cIt\u2019s being around all those people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also coming back from the past: the studio team. Hannah Storm, Isiah Thomas and P.J. Carlesimo will handle a throwback version of \u201cNBA Showtime\u201d starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, an hour before the game broadcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some people are calling it \u2018new-stalgia.\u2019 There\u2019s just a touch of nostalgia and history,\u201d Costas said. \u201cBut then we lean into what\u2019s happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costas was NBC’s NBA host and play-by-play voice from 1990 through 2002. Collins was an NBA analyst from 1998 through 2001, Fratello had stints as a game and studio analyst spanning 1990 through 1993 and then 2001-02, Gray was a courtside reporter from 1994 through 2002, Storm was a courtside reporter and studio host from 1993 through 2000, Thomas was a game and studio analyst from 1998 through 2000 and Carlesimo was a studio analyst in 2001-02.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at NBC Sports has so many great memories of the 1990s and NBA on NBC,\u201d said Sam Flood, NBC Sports’ executive producer. \u201cWe are excited to get the band of iconic voices back together with Bob, Doug, Mike, Jim, Hannah, Isiah and P.J. and celebrate the game of basketball with viewers of all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s actually going to be a multi-day event for the NBC crew, with a dinner planned for Monday night and a long production lunch on Tuesday before the game.<\/p>\n
Carlesimo and Fratello \u2014 whose knowledge of Italian restaurants in NBA cities is the stuff of legend \u2014 were tasked with finding a spot for the Monday night event, Costas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe czar of the telestrator, Mike Fratello, knows every good Italian restaurant in every city in America. And it doesn\u2019t matter if they\u2019re booked up. He can get a table at any one of them,\u201d Costas said. \u201cSo, I said to the Czar, \u2018Call P.J., you two guys put your heads together and whatever you decide, all the rest of us have to do is know the place and the time and we\u2019ll be there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Costas, Doug Collins and Mike Fratello never all called a game together when they were teammates at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[72622,56984,2097,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-626987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ap-entertainment","9":"tag-ap-sports","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116139444928360204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}