As a teenager of the ‘80s, a New Englander, and someone who savors the Bird-Magic rivalry, I have to admit I find more happiness in reflecting on CBS’s NBA broadcasts, with Dick Stockton and Tommy Heinsohn on the call, and Brent Musburger telling us, “You’re looking live!,” than I do for anything NBC did in the ‘90s.

But I must also admit the NBA’s official return to NBC on Tuesday night, as part of the league’s broad new broadcast rights deal, did stir warm sentiments for the previous partnership, which ended 23 years ago.

NBC hit almost all of the right nostalgic notes before and during its debut broadcast, a double-overtime thriller between the Thunder and Rockets. The broadcast started in the only logical way it could have: with John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” intro, which somehow manag

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