The NBA on CBS is an American presentation of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by CBS Sports, and televised on the CBS television network. It aired from October 20, 1973 to June 14, 1990.
History Early presentation In the early 1970s, the CBS television network aired American Basketball Association (ABA) games, specifically league's annual All-Star Game/selected playoff games. Pat Summerall served as the CBS analyst on some ABA games alongside Don Criqui on play-by-play. Game 5 of the 1970 ABA Finals (Indiana vs. Los Angeles) was nationally televised by CBS on Saturday, May 23 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The broadcast was, however, blacked out in Indiana. After that league's 1972–73 season, CBS lost its television airing rights as they started airing NBA games in its 1973–74 season onward.
During CBS' first few years of covering the NBA, CBS was accused of mishandling their NBA telecasts. Among the criticisms included CBS playing too much loud music, the lack of stability with the announcers, regionalizing telecasts (thus fragmenting the ratings even further), billing games as being between star players instead of teams, and devoting too much attention to the slam dunk in instant replays. Regular features included a pre-game show that consisted of mini-teams of celebrities, and active and former NBA players competing against each other, and a halftime show called 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 Sonny Hill to cover the league on a full-time basis. CBS also put microphones and cameras on team huddles to allow viewers to see and hear coaches at work. Finally, CBS introduced a halftime segment called Red Auerbach on Roundball, featuring the Hall of Fame Boston Celtics coach. The segment intended to not only educate CBS' viewers about the complexities of the pro game but also to teach young players how to improve their skills. They also subtly introduced audiences to an all-star team based on Auerbach's criteria such as screening and passing. In a Red on Roundball halftime segment that 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.
Sandy Grossman was the chief director of broadcasting NBA games on CBS during the early 1970s. Grossmann innovated using music at the break of basketball games, and after he played "The Hustle" by Van McCoy, McCoy sent him a gold record in thanks of his promotion.
ABC meanwhile, filled the void left by losing the NBA by counterprogramming Wide World of Sports on Sundays against CBS' NBA coverage.
Pat Summerall worked the Masters for CBS during the April 13–14 weekend in 1974. In the 1974-75 season CBS covered 43 games including all 4 games of the NBA Finals.
In the 1975–76 season, CBS had asked the NBA to schedule both games on January 25, so they could choose which one to televise.
Slam dunk contest During the 1976–77 season, the NBA's first after the ABA–NBA merger brought four American Basketball Association teams into the league, CBS held a slam dunk contest that ran during halftime of the Game of the Week telecasts. Don Criqui was the host of this particular competition. The final, which pitted Larry McNeill of the Golden State Warriors against eventual winner Darnell "Dr. Dunk" Hillman of the Indiana Pacers, took place during Game 6 of the 1977 NBA Finals. At the time of the final, Hillman's rights had been traded to 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). 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.
H-O-R-S-E Competition During the 1977–78 season, CBS held a H-O-R-S-E competition at halftime of the Game of the Week telecasts. Again, Don Criqui hosted with Mendy Rudolph officiating. 32 players, including Rick Barry, Pete Maravich, George Gervin, Jo Jo 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 Earl Tatum of the Los Angeles Lakers. Maravich and Westphal made it 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 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.
Tape delay and playoff scheduling From 1975 to 1979, CBS aired all NBA Finals games live (usually during the afternoon); live NBA Finals game coverage on the network resumed in 1982. During this era, CBS aired weeknight playoff games from earlier rounds on tape delay 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 p.m. local starts. For instance, CBS aired Games 1–3 of the 1981 Western Conference finals, between the Houston Rockets and Kansas City Kings. Ironically, both Western Conference teams finished the regular season with a record 40–42, instead of the Eastern Conference finals between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers (both teams finished with a 62–20 record).
1986 was the last year that CBS aired an NBA playoff game on tape delay. The network's final delayed playoff broadcast was Game 3 (on May 16) of the Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets. The game aired at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time after having a 9:30 p.m. tip.
Preemptions Due to the NBA's lack of widespread popularity nationwide in the 1970s and early 1980s, the network tinkered with the league's schedule. However, individual CBS affiliates did as much tinkering, with many outright refusing to air NBA programming during much of CBS' partnership with the league.
WCPO in Cincinnati, a CBS affiliate during the NBA on CBS era, did not carry many regular season games in the 1970s, deciding to run movies and other programming instead. The city had lost the Cincinnati Royals when they moved to Kansas City and Omaha in 1972; Cincinnati has not had an NBA team since. As an ABC affiliate post-1996, WCPO has carried that network's regular season (and playoffs) since ABC and ESPN gained broadcast rights to the NBA in 2002. Other markets that hardly aired NBA games during the early half of the CBS era included Baltimore and, infamously, Atlanta (which had, and still has, a team).
All through the 1980s when CBS broadcast NBA basketball games on Sunday afternoons, those games were pretty much a no-show in the Carolinas. WBTV in Charlotte, WFMY in Greensboro, WTVD (now an ABC owned-and-operated station) in Raleigh, and WBTW in Florence refused to show any of the games. They instead opted for old movies, and off-net repeats mostly. WLTX in Columbia did air a full schedule of NBA games, and low-powered indie Ch. 62 in Fayetteville did take the games instead of WTVD (other indies in the state didn't bother with them though). Ironically, toward the end of the NBA's partnership with CBS, the Charlotte Hornets would make their debut, citing the sport's popularity in the Carolinas as a reason for expansion.
The ABC-owned or affiliated stations (WMAR, WCPO, and WTVD) now cleared all sports programming, including the NBA, in their partnership with the network.
Scheduling history overview +CBS scheduling tote boards GameDayDateStatus 1979 NBA Final 1SundayMay 20Live 2ThursdayMay 24Tape delay 3SundayMay 27Live 4TuesdayMay 29Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay to Mountain/Pacific zones (11:30 p.m. Eastern Time start) 5FridayJune 1Live (9 p.m. Eastern Time start) 1980 Eastern Conference Final 1FridayApril 18No broadcast 2SundayApril 20Live 3WednesdayApril 23No broadcast 4ThursdayApril 24No broadcast 5SundayApril 27Live 1980 Western Conference Final 1TuesdayApril 22No broadcast 2WednesdayApril 23Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay elsewhere 3FridayApril 25Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay elsewhere 4SundayApril 27Live 5WednesdayApril 30Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay elsewhere 1980 NBA Final1SundayMay 4Live 2WednesdayMay 7Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay elsewhere 3SaturdayMay 10Live 4SundayMay 11Live 5WednesdayMay 14Live to Eastern/Central zones, tape delay elsewhere 6FridayMay 16Affiliates had choice to show live or tape delay
1976 The 1976 NBA Finals had three straight off days between the Sunday afternoon opener and Game 2 the following Thursday night due to CBS' concern with low ratings for professional basketball. The 1975–76 network television season (as well as May sweeps) ended after Wednesday, May 26 (with weekend afternoon games not factored into the prime-time ratings). Accordingly, CBS allowed Game 1 to be played on Sunday afternoon since the ratings would not count, but would not permit Game 2 to be played live in prime time unless the NBA waited until Thursday evening.
For Game 3 of the Finals, CBS forced the NBA to start the game in Phoenix at 10:30 a.m. local time (1:30 p.m. Eastern Time) on a Sunday morning. This was done to accommodate a golf telecast that afternoon. Many local clergymen were outraged, as attendance at Sunday church services was drastically reduced that day.
1977 By 1977, CBS' NBA schedule was composed of six regionalized telecasts on Sundays. Not only that, the network would air one national game if they felt that the match-up itself warranted national coverage. CBS also could stage doubleheaders and switch from a one-sided game to a close one. During this period, the network stopped airing any games during prime time before the NBA Finals. Instead, CBS started airing several West Coast games at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
For most of the early years, the NBA tried to assist CBS by allowing the network to choose any game it wanted to broadcast. But too often, these involved smaller-market teams (such as the Portland Trail Blazers) that were in the playoffs or had won the championship.
CBS wanted the NBA to start Game 6 of the Finals at 10:30 local time on Sunday morning to accommodate a golf telecast of the Kemper Open (similar to 1976). This time, the NBA refused and CBS agreed to a noon start in Portland. Even though this was the Finals' clinching game, CBS cut away from its NBA coverage very quickly after the game ended, skipping the trophy presentation in the Trail Blazers' locker room to instead televise the golf tournament.
1978