NBC plans on using Mike Tirico as its lead play-by-play announcer when it begins broadcasting games during the 25-26 NBA season. Tirico called NBA games on both television and radio for many years while with ESPN. Tirico is also the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC's coverage of the NFL.
When NBC broadcast the NBA in the 1990s, Marv Albert and then Bob Costas were its lead play-by-play broadcasters.
NBC plans to use the same formula for Sunday Night Basketball as they have enjoyed for years with Sunday Night Football. They will have an hour-long pregame show and attempt to feature the best matchups possible.
“We hope to have a fantastic studio show and studio talent around what we see as the game of the week and we will use our team appearances working closely with the NBA on making it the best matchup that we possibly can have at that point of the season,” president of NBC Sports Rick Cordella said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of success on Sunday Football. I’d love to say someone had a eureka moment coming up with the idea for Sunday Night Basketball but I think it was just natural to us at NBC Sports that this would be a franchise we wanted to create outside of football season. Certainly we have a (broadcast) window open there (after the NFL season). We pitched it to the NBA and it’s an easy to understand concept.”
The first Sunday Night basketball game will likely be February 15, 2026.
“The best matchups that we have access are what we will attempt to put on that night,” Cordella said. “So a rematch of the NBA Finals would be a Sunday night matchup we’d want. Things that are big market and big ratings. We’ll have a research team that goes through all this. There is some flexibility to move games in and out within reason during the NBA schedule. You have seen Turner previously move games in and out and we will work closely with the NBA on that. Then it’s about putting production values against this.We want to showcase our production capabilities. We will have our ‘A’ team on the game in terms of announcers and analysts and a great studio show.”