The longtime face of NBC Sports is set for a cameo Tuesday as part of the network’s NBA coverage.
Longtime NBC Sports voice Bob Costas narrated the pregame tease for both of the network’s NBA games Tuesday night, Knicks-Bucks and Warriors-Clippers. (Update 10/29: According to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, Costas’ appearance was part of negotiations with NBC to give him what he called “sort of an emeritus role,” additional details of which were not immediately known.)
BOB COSTAS GETS YOU READY FOR KNICKS-BUCKS!
Tune-in to the game on NBC (ET/CT/Select MT) and Peacock at 8PM ET. pic.twitter.com/mj5Ni8bQX8
— NBA on NBC and Peacock (@NBAonNBC) October 28, 2025
BOB COSTAS GETS YOU SET FOR WARRIORS-CLIPPERS!
Tune-in on NBC (PT/Select MT) and Peacock at 8PM PT. pic.twitter.com/x1UGKip4L5
— NBA on NBC and Peacock (@NBAonNBC) October 28, 2025
During its previous stint carrying NBA games from 1990-2002, the network aired a pregame tease prior to nearly every telecast, regular season or playoffs, with Costas narrating several of the most memorable.
Beyond the nostalgia factor, the tease marked a rare NBC role for Costas, who left the network quietly in 2018. Appearing on the Sports Media Watch Podcast earlier this year, Costas said he and NBC got “sideways” toward the end of his tenure due to his off-air commentary about the NFL and IOC, but that the relationship is “in the process of mending itself now.”
In the same podcast, Costas expressed some disappointment about not having a final send-off at NBC: “You know, I didn’t need, as I’ve said many times, a brass band and a parade, but you don’t want to just disappear without the slightest bit of closure. … That was, that was a little off, that it happened that way. And that sort of left me for looking for the ribbon and, and maybe, in a bit of poetic justice that ribbon is found right back at 30 Rock, but we’ll have to see. Nothing certain yet, but maybe.”
Since leaving NBC in 2018, Costas has continued in his longtime role at MLB Network and for a time was a studio host and play-by-play voice for MLB on TBS. He retired from MLB play-by-play after last year’s postseason. Outside of sports, he has been a contributor to CNN.
Costas most recently appeared on NBC alongside Al Michaels in a sit-down discussion with Mike Tirico during last year’s Summer Olympics.
