Roundball Rock: John Tesh Explains Origin of NBA on NBC Theme Song

By any measure, John Tesh is an accomplished musician.

The New York native has won eight Emmys, made four Gold Records, and won an Associated Press award for investigative journalism. 

Tesh has sold over eight million records and made millions from his concerts, but he’ll always be known to most of the world for one thing: Writing Roundball Rock, the theme song for the NBA on NBC in the 1990s. 

That ditty has been in the public consciousness more recently with the pro basketball league returning to NBC this week after more than 20 years away, and he joined The Dan Patrick Show on Friday to explain how he came up with it. 

READ MORE: Michael Jordan Explains Why He is Contributing to NBC's Return

Origins of a classic 

“In 1990 when I heard that NBC had gotten the rights to the NBA back,” Tesh recalled during an appeared on the DP Show. “I’m in that sports ecosystem because I was working for the network on other stuff, and I thought, ‘What would an NBA theme sound like?’” 

The idea ended up coming to him while he was in France covering the Tour de France bicycle race. 

“I had this melody in my head…and I knew that if I went back to sleep — and I’m sure you’ve had this feeling when you have a great idea and you go back to sleep and it’s gone,” he said. 

Without a tape recorder or sheet music (let alone a smartphone — it was the early 1990s, after all), he had to get resourceful. 

“I called my answering machine at 2 a.m. and recorded that,” he said. “And when I got home, the two sections were on my answering machine.” 

Those ended up being enough for him to compose a song that ends up being the prelude to many classic games, including all six of Michael Jordan’s NBA championships along with the Houston Rockets’ back-to-back titles and many more memorable moments. 

(For those who are too young to remember, an answering machine was something people hooked up to their landlines to record messages if someone called and they weren’t able to answer. It was like voicemail but with real tapes and everything!)

Tesh still recording new music 

The world is grateful Tesh was able to come up not only with this tune but was also resourceful enough to make sure he got it on tape before being lost into the ether. 

That bit of extra effort has worked out pretty well for Tesh, too. 

“It’s supernatural for me because the first time it was on the air and I was sitting in a bar watching it come on the air, I had written hundreds of themes for CBS in particular, everything from football to tennis, and so this was another theme,” Tesh said. “It was sort of bouncy and not as epic as most of the stuff that I did.” 

Tesh has been recording since the mid-80s, and he has a new album out called Sports, which he is promoting, the first since Songs and Stories from the Grand Piano in 2020. 

On Dan Patrick’s show, he also settled a debate (if there was one) between famous songs he wrote: Entertainment Tonight or Roundball Rock? 

“Oh, Roundball Rock,” he replied immediately.