Watch John Tesh Tip Off ‘Roundball Rock’ Live On ‘Today Show’

Last night, the NBA returned to NBC for the first time since 2002. The games between the Oklahoma Thunder and Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers were introduced by John Tesh’s classic “Roundball Rock” theme.

Tesh appeared on yesterday’s episode of NBC’s Today Show and performed “Roundball Rock.” According to the keyboardist and former NBC correspondent, it was Tesh’s first live rendition of the instrumental with an orchestra.

“Roundball Rock” was used by NBC for broadcasts of NBA games between 1990 and 2002. The network entered into an 11-year pact with the league to air professional basketball games ahead of the 2025 season.

Tesh revealed to Today Show anchor Craig Melvin that he attempted to record an updated version of “Roundball Rock” for the NBA’s return to NBC. After receiving negative feedback when the updated version was posted on social media by commenters favoring the original version, Tesh ditched the new attempt and went back to the classic arrangement.

Tesh also retold the origin story of what became an iconic theme song. While covering the Tour de France for NBC decades ago, he woke up in the middle of the night with an idea for the song and called home to hum the melody into his answering machine in order to preserve it.

Watch the Today Show segment with Tesh starting at the 1:03:34 mark of the video below: