Ever wondered where that really catchy song that you hear when a sports broadcast fades to commercial on ESPN or ABC or almost any big network carrying a big time game? It’s called "Roundball Rock", and you can thank NBC for getting it stuck in your head (or Nelly for sampling it in Heart of a Champion.) Written by John Tesh, the song became famous as it was used as the theme music for all NBC telecasts from 1990 to 2002; at the close of the Michael Jordan era, the song had become essentially synonymous with NBA basketball. I feel like I hear it on every sports broadcast, and in my mind, I associate it with the Yankees (probably because I watched so many Yankees games as a kid and that song on almost twice every inning and more during the pre and post game commentary).

Since the time that John Tesh immortalized this song in the world of sports broadcasts, the NBA has contracted several musical performers to write theme songs for various beginning of the season games, all-star games, playoffs, and other special events (like Christmas games). Robert Randolph and the Family Band wrote ABC’s theme song for the 2002-2003 season and its campaign, We Got Hoops. Justin Timberlake wrote the song Can’t Get Enough, which was premiered on Christmas Day 2003 by Justin himself. Before the Heat-Lakers game on Christmas Day 2004, ABC created a little Jackson 5 jingle:

“A-B-C, it's the NBA on A-B-C, are you ready to play?

Al and Hubie got the play-by-play, 'cause ABC Sports got the NBA.

The Heat and the Lakers coming through your TV, it's the NBA on ABC"

Last year, the NBA used U2’s "Get On Your Boots" for the opening of the 2009 playoffs. Since the 2007-2008 season, the NBA has used some variation of the "Where Amazing Happens" campaign, featuring Carly Commando’s song Everyday, Ludovico Einaudi’s song "Fly," or Kanye’s "Amazing." This year, the commercials has been even more creative. TNT opened the season with this commercial featuring Justin Timberlake and Jamie Foxx, but that’s not even close to all that’s been done. The NBA has created new ads that feature star players’ auto-tuned voices using audio clips from interviews and press conferences so that it sounds like they are rapping over the beat playing in the background.

I like this one because Dwayne Wade on autotune is almost as good as him auto-tuning the discordantly talented Heat:

Here's another:

Whoever comes up with this stuff for the NBA and the networks is awesome, but they’re not the only ones making big moves. This NFL Draft commercial from Verizon is what made me think of all of this in the first place: