A Super Bowl lead-in would be a gold mine for NBA on NBC

While we have to wait a season for the NBA media rights deals to go into effect, the league has to be chomping at the bit regarding the possibilities of what games on NBC and Amazon could potentially mean. Of course, the networks still need to figure out their announcing team, and we still have an entire season (2024-25) before the landscape officially changes.

But that doesn’t make the endless possibilities any less enticing. Sports media insider John Ourand of Puck floated one of those possibilities in his newsletter this week. Ourand wondered aloud if NBC would use the NBA as the lead-out to Super Bowl LX, which is an idea definitely worth exploring.

NBC will produce the 2025-26 Super Bowl come Feb. 8, 2026, from Santa Clara, California. This season, the Super Bowl will be on Fox with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady on the call. There’s still an entire season before Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will likely be in the booth. And while Tirico is likely to be the voice (or one of many voices) of the NBA on NBC, it’s an astute opportunity for the network to take advantage of its billion-dollar investment.

Traditionally, networks have used the Super Bowl as a platform to launch or promote new primetime programming. It’s a golden opportunity to introduce a fresh show to a massive audience. However, the unprecedented scale of NBC’s investment in the NBA might be changing the playbook.

By positioning an NBA game as the lead-out to the Super Bowl, NBC could create a sports mega-event unlike anything seen before. After all, NBC paid an astronomical sum to ensure the NBA—and “ Roundball Rock “—returned to its airwaves. So, given that, the network has a significant incentive to maximize the value of its investment.

It’s undoubtedly a high-stakes gamble, but the potential rewards that both the NBA and NBC would reap here are pretty immense. It’s never been done before, but a high-stakes matchup on the West Coast, maybe some combination of the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets, could certainly entice fans to tune in after The Big Game.

By capturing the attention of the Super Bowl audience for an NBA game, NBC could generate unprecedented viewership numbers and potentially redefine the sports television landscape. It would potentially be the highest rated regular season game of all-time for the league.

Of course, the NBA would be at the beckoning of the Super Bowl. The game wouldn’t tip off until the postgame festivities were over and taken care of, just like any primetime programming wouldn’t get off the runway until the NFL gives them the all-clear.

A decent number of home viewers will leave the TV on after the Super Bowl, only for it to lead into this new show they heard about. Could you imagine it leading into a primetime NBA matchup?

Let’s face it: the NFL stole Christmas from the NBA. So Roger Goodell and Co. might owe Adam Silver and the networks that saw their viewership saturated on what’s supposed to be one of the bigger ratings days of the year for The Association.

The NBA has long been a staple of Christmas Day programming, and the NFL’s encroachment on this territory has undoubtedly altered the sports landscape.

While it’s a compelling argument in favor of the NBA, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a smooth path for a proposed Super Bowl lead-out. And while the idea of an NBA game leading into the Super Bowl is undoubtedly enticing for NBC, it presents a significant hurdle in the form of the NFL. The league has historically been fiercely protective of its biggest event, and allowing a direct lead-in to a rival league’s content could be seen as a major concession.

There’s also the prospect of the 2026 Winter Olympics already being underway, but being that they’re in Milan, nothing will be live after the Super Bowl’s conclusion.

The intersection of the NBA and the Super Bowl is a tantalizing prospect for fans, networks, and leagues alike. If it can get off the runway, it will undoubtedly have a domino effect that CBS, ESPN, and others will likely look to take advantage of, too.

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