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Adam Zagoria: Dan Hurley and the @UConnMBB staff have not reached out to their 2024 recruits to let them know either way what his plans are. Danny and Luke Murray were at Billy Joel last night at MSG and there will reportedly be a UConn team meeting today. Imagine we'll know something today
Or, as the voice-of-god narrator would say at the beginning of the film: A fusion of music and sports like never before. “Nobody had composited one video of the best players in the league, set to really high-end, copyrighted popular music,” Sperling says. If you have seen “NBA Superstars,” you know that part of its charm lies in its soundtrack, which is catchy, well curated and sometimes kind of weird. The film begins with Janet Jackson’s “Control” scoring a montage of Magic Johnson highlights, transitions to Mellencamp and Bird, and then pivots to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” for Michael Jordan, an explicit nod to the song’s association with the movie Top Gun and Jordan’s ability to fly (especially in slow motion). But then, there’s Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”; an instrumental track from Greek composer Yanni (“Looking Glass”) that scores a Dominique Wilkins reel; and a Billy Joel ballad from 1986 (“This is the Time”) during a tribute to older NBA players from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
The network loved it, and the rest is history, set to a 60-piece orchestra. "Roundball Rock" became synonymous with NBC's glorious run of basketball coverage from 1990 until 2002. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls never won an NBA title that wasn't accompanied by Tesh's theme. "Roundball Rock" was there when Shaq and Kobe ruled Laker-land; when Barkley made a Finals run as a Phoenix Sun; when O.J. Simpson's Bronco chase made chaos of a Knicks-Rockets final. "They played it every five seconds—into commercials, out of commercials," said Tesh, who owns the rights to the song. "It definitely put one of my kids through college." In 2002, ABC took over the NBA from NBC. "We offered it to ABC," Tesh said. "I sent a message saying, 'Hey, listen based on what this theme is, I know I could deliver me, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Edge. All these guys are fans of the theme, and we could all play it for you, and it would be an event." "They were like, 'No, we want a completely different song,'" Tesh said. "I get that."
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