NBA on television in the 1970s

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National Basketball Association on television

ABC gained the NBA in 1964, the network aired its first NBA game on January 3, 1965, but lost the broadcast rights to CBS after the 1972–73 season with the initial tenure ending on May 10, 1973. As the national broadcaster of the NBA, CBS aired NBA games from the 1973-74 until the 1989–90 season, during which the early 1980s is notoriously known as the tape delay playoff era.

NBA entered the cable territory in 1979 when USA Network signed a three-year $1.5 million deal and extended for two years until the 1983-84 season, ESPN also had a brief affair with NBA from 1982 to 1984.

1970-1973

For much of the 1960s, ABC only televised Sunday afternoon games, including during the NBA Playoffs. This meant that ABC did not have to televise a potential NBA Finals deciding game if it were played on a weeknight. In 1969, ABC did televise Game 7 of the Los Angeles Lakers–Boston Celtics series in prime time on a weeknight. The following season, ABC aired the 1970 NBA Finals in its entirety, making it the first Finals series to have all games televised nationally.

Commentators for the original NBA on ABC included

Bill Russell
.

Jack Twyman remained as color commentator for the broadcasts up until 1971, when the position was assumed by Bill Russell. ABC lost the broadcast rights to the NBA to CBS[8] after the 1972–73 season,[9] with the network's initial tenure with the league ending with its last NBA Finals game on May 10, 1973.

  • 1970: The first NBA Finals to be nationally televised in full.
    • MSG Network
      in New York City, which was then only available in about 25,000 cable households in Manhattan.

1973-1976

During CBS' first few years of covering the NBA, CBS was accused of mishandling their NBA telecasts.

Horse
.

The NBA eventually took notice of the criticisms and managed to persuade CBS to eliminate its original halftime show. In its place, came human-interest shows about the players (similar to the ones seen on the network's NFL pre-game The NFL Today). There also was a possibility that CBS would start televising a single national game on Sunday afternoons.

Other adjustments that CBS made in hopes of improving its coverage included hiring reporter

all-star team based on Auerbach's criteria such as screening and passing. In a Red on Roundball halftime segment which appeared on CBS' NBA telecasts in the 1973–74 season, Auerbach and referee Mendy Rudolph discussed and demonstrated the practice of flopping
with obvious disapproval.

From

tape delay[15] at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time (airing games live when the game site was in the Pacific Time Zone
). CBS continued this practice until at least the mid-1980s.

CBS did not want sportscasters to give the final score on the late-evening newscasts aired by its local affiliates. The network preferred the games to not be over by that time if they were going to be aired on tape later that night. Most CBS games were either 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. local starts.

  • 1976 NBA Finals: There were three days of rest between Game 1 Sunday, May 23 and Game 2 Thursday, May 27, so that CBS would not have to count an NBA game in the Nielsen ratings for the May sweeps period. The 1976 May sweeps period ended Wednesday, May 26.
    • Game 3 tipped off at 10:30 a.m. MST to allow CBS to cover The Memorial golf tournament following the game. Church attendance that Sunday was sharply lower across Arizona, drawing an angry response from many clergy throughout the state.
    • CBS play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger, in a Fall 2009 interview with ESPN, said that he and color announcer Rick Barry were rooting for Phoenix to win Games 3, 4, and 6, although Barry's Golden State Warriors were eliminated by the Suns in the Western Conference finals. Musburger said that this was because he and Barry were paid by the game. Since the Series was 2-0 Boston after the first two games, Musburger and Barry wanted the Suns to win the next two games to tie the series (likewise with Game 6). Boston fans, unaware of Musburger's and Barry's motivations, were upset with the announcing crew because of their apparent favoritism.

1976-1977

During the

New York Nets, but he had not yet signed a contract. Since he was not officially a member of any NBA team, instead of wearing a jersey, he competed in a plain white tank top. Then for the post-competition interview, Hillman donned a shirt with the words "Bottle Shoppe" – the name of an Indianapolis liquor store, which is still in existence, and was the sponsor of a city parks softball league team for which Hillman played left field (and the only team he was a member of at the time).[16] Other players to compete in the slam dunk tournament included Julius Erving, George Gervin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone. CBS, anxious for star power, also gave David Thompson the opportunity to be eliminated three times.[17][18]

  • 1977 NBA Finals: The post-game trophy presentation following Game 6 was never aired because CBS decided to air the Kemper Open following the game. Initially CBS wanted a 10:30 a.m. PT start to accommodate the golf tournament but the NBA refused, instead settling for the 12:00 p.m. PT start time.

1977-1978

During the

JoJo White, Doug Collins, Paul Westphal and Bob McAdoo, competed in a round-robin single-elimination tournament each week. Barry was eliminated in the first round by journeyman Earl Tatum of the Los Angeles Lakers. Maravich and Westphal made it all the way to the final, which was scheduled to take place at halftime of Game 2 of the 1978 NBA Finals
. However, Maravich was injured and unavailable, so CBS instead had Westphal shoot a free-throw against "Bag-Man" (who was actually Rick Barry, who was on the announcing team, wearing a paper sack over his head). Westphal, with a bag over his head as well, made the free throw while Barry missed, and CBS awarded him the trophy.

By 1978,

Conference finals
at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

1978-1979

In 1979, Games 2 and 5 of the Eastern Conference finals were televised live, while Game 7 was broadcast on tape delay. Games 3 and 6 of the Western Conference finals aired live, while Games 2, 5 and 7 were televised via tape delay. Games 6 and 7 of the 1979 NBA Finals would have been televised live (at 3:30 p.m. on a Sunday and then 9:00 p.m. on the following Tuesday), but were unnecessary.

See also

References

  1. ^ Maher, Charles (9 January 1973). "The Bill Russell Show". Los Angeles Times. p. D1.
  2. ^ "East Given Edge in NBA All-Star Game". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. 21 January 1968. p. 5C.
  3. ^ "N.B.A. ALL-STARS TO MEET TUESDAY". New York Times. 21 January 1968. p. S3.
  4. ^ "NBA All-Stars Of East, West To Clash Live". Hartford Courant. 21 January 1968. p. 7H.
  5. ^ "Two Lost Warriors Crimp West". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. 23 January 1968. p. 19.
  6. ^ Koppett, Leonard (19 January 1969). "Time Out for Business; All-Star Interruptions Explained, But a Basic Problem Is Neglected". New York Times. p. S8.
  7. ^ "Archibald Tops List of Stars". Sarasota Journal. Associated Press. 11 January 1973. p. 2D.
  8. ^ Friedman, David (22 December 2010). "The NBA in the 1970s: Roone's Revenge". 20 Second Timeout.
  9. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.26.1281. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  10. ^ "Slam-Dunked By the Ratings". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc.[dead link]
  11. ^ "There's An Ill Wind Blowing for the NBA" (PDF). Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2013. John Papanek also criticized CBS' coverage of the NBA in a Sports Illustrated article called, "There's An Ill Wind Blowing for the NBA." Papanek indicted CBS for "treating its telecasts as little more than a bridge between a refrigerator race and a golf tournament
  12. ^ Zemek, Matt (24 August 2015). "5 LOW POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA ON TV". Awful Announcing.
  13. ^ "There's An Ill Wind Blowing for the NBA" (PDF). Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2013. Even NBA players such as Bob Lanier agreed that there should have been a continuity of announcers, so fans could relate to them.
  14. ^ "There's An Ill Wind Blowing for the NBA" (PDF). Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2013. He also wrote that CBS had erred by billing games as players against players rather than teams, such as "Dr. J vs. Rick Barry", and "David Thompson vs. Pistol Pete."
  15. ^ "The NBA on CBS late night and tape delay playoff era". Classic Sports TV and Media. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  16. ^ "The Victoria Advocate - Google News Archive Search". Google News.
  17. ^ "Dr. Dunk Rates His Competition". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  18. ^ Steve Kroner (18 February 2005). "Enjoying 'Mile High' should be a slam dunk". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
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