Reflecting on NBA 2003. (Remote Patrol).

It's May 13, 2003--time to look back on Year 1 of the NBA's brave new TV world. It was an improvement over 2002, but it took some getting used to.

Scheduling was the big change after a decade of status quo. The NBA is playing on five channels, four of them on cable (that's why David Stern bought TV Guide). ESPN replaced NBC as the prime carrier, with games on Wednesdays and Fridays; ABC showed some Sunday games; TNT, Thursday doubleheaders; plus there were Sunday-Monday-Tuesday exposures on the NBA/AOL Time Warner channel, winch never made it to my cable system, so the expected glut of games never occurred.

Not even in the best-of-seven first-round playoffs. All those channels doomed tripleheaders and four-day layoffs, still, the '03 first round took as long as '02's, which ran 16 days, just like the Olympics; same ol' song. Speaking of music: ESPN killed John Tesh's NBC theme for one by John Colby, who wrote SportsC2mer's da-da-da! da-da-da! Backed by Disney promotion, "Bricked Free Throw Boogie" topped Billboard and Muzak charts.

In ESPN's studio, John Saunders-Mike Tirico was an upgrade over the Hannah Storm-Ahmad Rashad platoon (the NBA kept Rashad on Inside Stuff). Tom Tolbert continued his rise--he wouldn't be on TV if Jayson Williams ...