Update 9/25: NBC’s open from Game 4 of the 1991 NBA Finals, one of the network’s most remembered.
As narrated by Bob Costas:
“When little children go out to play basketball these days, it seems most pretend to be Michael Jordan. And why not? He’s become an icon of sports and television, their two tiny windows onto the world. And thus he dominates their imaginations. But that is myth and down here, well that’s basketball reality.
Imagine what it’s really like to be Michael Jordan. Imagine being assigned the opposing center, giving up 50 pounds and seven inches. Imagine that in the marquee matchup, he doesn’t have to guard you, but you have to guard him. Imagine that every time your team trails by a basket with ten seconds to play, you have to take the shot — and then in overtime, there’s no time to be tired or injured or want help from a teammate. It’s you they’re watching all over the country — all over the world, in fact — it’s you they expect to win the game.
Playing 52 minutes of a 53 minute contest, you’re still required to make this kind of exclamation point at the finish. So even as the children say ‘I’m going to be Michael Jordan someday,’ you wonder if somehow — amid the injuries, the fatigue, and the expectations — he’ll find a way to be Michael Jordan again tonight.”
