NBC has added another early 2000s NBA star to its NBA studio roster.
NBC Sports has hired Tracy McGrady as an NBA studio analyst, it was announced Tuesday. McGrady, who previously worked as an analyst for ESPN’s “The Jump,” will appear in-studio at least once a week through the playoffs.
McGrady joins an NBC studio roster that includes his cousin and former teammate Vince Carter. Both McGrady and Carter were regulars on NBC’s NBA schedule during the final years of the network’s original run from 1990-2002. The studio team also includes Carmelo Anthony — whose career began after NBC lost rights — with occasional appearances by Austin Rivers and Brian Scalabrine.
NBC will debut its new NBA studio with a one-hour pregame show leading into its Opening Night doubleheader on October 21, the network announced when it unveiled its fall primetime schedule on Monday. The pregame show will air at 6:30 PM ET — preempting “NBC Nightly News” — leading into a doubleheader of games at 7:30 and 10:00 PM.
The Opening Night schedule is essentially the same as on TNT last year, when the network aired a 90-minute pregame at 6 PM ET leading into games at 7:30 and 10:00.
For the majority of the season, NBC affiliates will receive only one of the two games the network carries each Tuesday night. One game will air at 7:30 or 8 PM ET in the Eastern and Central time zones, with the other airing at around 7:30 or 8 PM PT (10:30 or 11 ET) in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. (Both games will be simulcast on Peacock.)
Opening Night, however, is an exception. NBC is contractually obligated to carry both games on the night in each year of the deal.
While the best-known NBA studio show — TNT’s “Inside the NBA” — consists largely of stars from the 1990s, NBA newcomers NBC and Amazon have largely put together studio rosters consisting of stars from the 2000s. In addition to NBC’s McGrady, Carter and Anthony, Amazon has hired Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Blake Griffin for its studio.
