NBA Showtime
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NBA Showtime is the pregame show aired before each NBA on NBC telecast. The program, a half-hour in length, began during the 1990-91 NBA season, and was initially hosted by Bob Costas. Costas left in the mid-1990s, and became lead play-by-play voice of The NBA on NBC in 1997. Hannah Storm replaced Costas and hosted Showtime through the 2000-2001 NBA season, when she left on maternity leave. Ahmad Rashad began hosting the pregame show in place of Storm, and, during the 2001-2002 NBA season, alternated hosting duties with her. NBC dropped the title of Showtime prior to the 2000-01 NBA season.
Showtime analysts included:
- Quinn Buckner
- P. J. Carlesimo
- Pat Croce
- Julius Erving
- Mike Fratello
- Kevin Johnson
- Pat Riley
- John Salley
- Isiah Thomas
- Tom Tolbert
- Peter Vecsey
- Bill Walton
- Jayson Williams
Midway Games created a NBA Showtime arcade game in 1999. The game was an update to the NBA Jam series, and used the same opening music and presentation style as the television show.
[edit] Programming change
On March 3, 1991, the Insiders segment was cancelled and replaced by a report of breaking news: a plane had crashed in Security-Widefield, Colorado. All aboard were killed in a crash that was caused by wind shear. Because Operation Desert Storm had just ended, Costas emphasized that the story had nothing to do with events in Iraq.
