John Tesh has delivered an updated “shredded” version of “Roundball Rock” ahead of NBA returning to NBC next year.
There’s no better way to get hype for a basketball game than with a little “Roundball Rock”. OK, so “Sweet Georgia Brown” is up there, too, but John Tesh’s song helped define pro basketball for a generation, with “Roundball Rock” serving as the anthem for NBA on NBC for over a decade. Now, it is set to take the court yet again, as Tesh has delivered another spin on the instrumental.
John Tesh built up the updated version of “Roundball Rock” during an interview on The Dan Le Batard Show (via The Hollywood Reporter) by saying, “We went back into the studio and got me on Hammond organ and a guitar player named Andrew Synowiec, which was pretty incredible, and the rest of my band…I wrote an extra piece to put on the end of ‘Roundball Rock’, and then we did what’s known as the shredded version.”
With NBC regaining rights to NBA games, that will allow “Roundball Rock” — or at least the new version of it — to get a new legion of fans when games begin airing in 2025.
The legacy of “Roundball Rock” supersedes pretty much any other sports show theme — with due respect to Hank Williams Jr.’s work on Monday Night Football. Really, what better way to get ready for a game than the instrumental sounds of John Tesh? That might sound like a jab but make no mistake that the song played a huge part in the game during the entirety of the ‘90s and into the early 2000s. OK, so maybe the Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius” gives “Roundball Rock” a run for its money thanks to the Chicago Bulls’ championship run in the ‘90s but let’s not forget that we heard John Tesh first.
John Tesh has been inducted into both the National Radio Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame…but we all know he deserves a special nod from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
What do you think of the new “Roundball Rock”? Do you think John Tesh deserves more credit for his role in the NBA?