Mike Tirico sits in for Sixers’ announcer Kate Scott on NBC Sports Philadelphia
“For one night, I’m not going to come in and try to make a name off being critical of the Sixers’ frustrations this year," Tirico told The Inquirer.
Kate Scott won’t be calling Monday’s 76ers game on NBC Sports Philadelphia, but Philly fans will certainly be familiar with her replacement.
Mike Tirico, the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, will sit in for Scott at the Wells Fargo Center when the Sixers host the Portland Trail Blazers. He’ll also call a Boston Celtics game later this week on NBC Sports Boston, which amounts to practice reps for the veteran broadcaster with NBC on deck to broadcast NBA games.
While Scott won’t be calling the game, she won’t be too far away — she’ll be part of NBC Sports Philadelphia’s pregame coverage tonight. Scott’s partner, Alaa Abdelnaby, will call the game alongside Tirico, while Taryn Hatcher will report live from the Wells Fargo Center.
“I know [Abdelnaby] through watching, I know him through watching him play over the years, but I don’t know him personally, which is fun,” Tirico told The Inquirer.
While Tirico is best known as the voice of Sunday Night Football and the Olympics, he’s called over 300 basketball games during his career, most during his 25-year tenure at ESPN. It’s been a while — not counting the one minute he broadcasted of the gold medal game at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to technical issues, the last basketball game Tirico called was nine years ago on ESPN.
“I just wanted to have the opportunity to do a few games this year,” Tirico said. “Not just to get the rust off, but refamiliarize yourself with the league … Since February 1, other than some Olympic work, I’ve been really honing in on the NBA to get back up to speed.”
While the Sixers are coming off an exciting win Saturday against the Golden State Warriors, Tirico certainly isn’t getting them at their best. Joel Embiid has been shut down for the rest of the season due to a lingering knee injury, and the Sixers wouldn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament if the season were over today. It’s an interesting spot for Tirico, who for the first time in his professional career — which includes easily over 1,000 games across multiple sports — will be calling a game for the hometown broadcast.
“It’s my first chance to say ‘we’ on the air and get away with it,” Tirico said. “It’s actually a fun muscle to exercise because I’ve always been, in some ways, jealous of people whose doing it and their team’s fate is tied to the broadcast on a nightly basis … So it’s a different wrinkle for me.”
Even if Philly fans start booing the team tonight — a frequent occurrence after losing 11 of their last 13 games — Tirico doesn’t plan to join in on the Sixers bashing during his limited engagement at the Wells Fargo Center.
“Sports fans know the truth, and they want to hear the truth when it’s their team,” Tirico said. “For one night, I’m not going to come in and try to make a name off being critical of the Sixers’ frustrations this year. Just be honest about it, and also just call the game in front of you.”
With TNT out, NBC will broadcast NBA games next season
With TNT Sports out after this season, NBC will begin broadcasting games as part of an 11-year TV rights deal with the league beginning next season.
The schedule will be tight for Tirico, who will be in the middle of his Sunday Night Football schedule when the 2025-26 NBA season begins in October. NBC is also broadcasting the Super Bowl next season, and after that Trico will host the 2026 Winter Olympics from Italy, which are scheduled to run from Feb. 6 through Feb. 22.
Tirico said they haven’t figured out the exact schedule, but he expects to call the NBA’s opening day and a handful of games between October and February. Once the Olympics are over, he’ll move over to focusing on the NBA for the rest of the season and the playoffs, when the network has games. That will include the 2026 NBA All-Star game, which NBC will broadcast.
“We’ve got probably the all-time month of sports TV with those three events in the same month for us,” Tirico said.
NBC plans to broadcast NBA games three nights a week — Sundays (once the NFL season ends), Mondays streaming on Peacock, and regional doubleheaders Tuesday evenings. Tirico won’t be the only play-by-play voice — Noah Eagle, the son of veteran NBA broadcaster Ian Eagle, will also call games for the network. They’ll be joined by analysts Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford, though Tirico said the exact pairings have yet to be decided.
The NBA has a long history on NBC, dating back to 1954. The network lost the rights after the 1962-63 season but got them back in 1990, just in time for Michael Jordan’s rise. That lasted 12 seasons until 2002, when NBC was outbid by Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN.
Ironically, it was TNT analyst Charles Barkley who mocked NBC during the 2022 NBA Finals for not coughing up enough money to keep the NBA, saying, “If y’all hadn’t wasted all that money on the XFL, y’all would still have basketball.” Now it’s TNT losing the NBA after being outbid, a move Barkley hasn’t been afraid to criticize.
“The people I work with, they’ve screwed this thing up, clearly,” Barkley said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show last year, adding, “Yeah, I’m angry.”
Amazon will also stream NBA games next season
NBC isn’t the only new face the NBA is welcoming to the table next season. Along with games remaining on ABC and ESPN, Amazon will stream a package of Thursday night NBA games on its Prime Video platform.
Amazon will stream 66 regular-season games, debut a Black Friday game the day after Thanksgiving (which will air after its 3 p.m. NFL game), and broadcast a handful of playoff games (which will include six NBA conference finals and all play-in tournament games). Amazon’s regular-season games will stream on Thursday (once the NFL season ends) and Friday nights.
While Amazon hasn’t announced who will be calling their NBA games (the Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported it will be Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan), their studio show will feature Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin, and Dirk Nowitzki.
ESPN will continue to air games Wednesday nights, as well as some weekend games on Saturday and Sunday. The network’s package includes 10 conference finals and keeping the NBA finals on ESPN and ABC. They will also broadcast TNT’s Inside the NBA, featuring Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith, though an exact schedule hasn’t been announced.