“Everything about this NBA Finals presentation looks like a regular-season game,” The Athletic’s Chris Vannini noted in the NBA Finals Game 1 live blog, in a good summary of some of the discourse online.
The NBA Finals are all about game-to-game adjustments. Based on widespread fan discussion during the Indiana Pacers’ thrilling win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Thursday night’s Game 1, here are several changes the NBA and ESPN might consider heading into Game 2 or as the series travels to Indiana next week.
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Put the NBA Finals logo on the court
In 2014, the NBA removed the huge Finals logo decal from the court for player safety reasons. Fair enough. That doesn’t mean the league can’t put a smaller decal — the script “Finals” is always an elegant look — on the court. Fans watching on TV might even be willing to accept a digitized overlay of the logo on the screen, if it’s in the service of making the court visuals more fitting for the special occasion.
“This game doesn’t look like an NBA Finals game,” The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov said Thursday night. “Yes, the finals midcourt logo hasn’t been there for a few years. And the only script visible on the court is for a beer company advertiser.
“Heck, the only way to guess it’s a finals game is all the ads crammed onto the TV all at once (I’m counting five that can be seen at once just on the court). It is a little odd that the NBA put so much into making the NBA Cup so distinct visually that those games now look more distinct than a finals game.”
While we’re talking about the finals logo: The small patch above the player name on the back of each jersey is too subtle. The league can take a cue from the College Football Playoff and put something big and bold on the front, by the shoulder. (Not suggesting they cover the sponsor patch or the Nike swoosh, simply that they add in a more prominent patch that commemorates that the team is playing in the finals. It’s not clutter, it’s classy.)
Show the starting lineups to the TV audience
One way to help with the commonly held observation that these two teams are relatively unknown is to introduce the lineups through — quite literally — player introductions. Put a name to a face, mediated through a booming PA announcer’s voice.
Let viewers hear the OKC home fans boo visiting would-be villains like Tyrese Haliburton or go crazy for their hometown stars. How Thunder fans react to the introduction of Haliburton in Game 2 has become a real storyline of the game, along with how Pacers fans in Indiana greet him or the Thunder. Will Shai Gilgeous-Alexander earn a “Free! Throw! Mer! Chant!” call from Indiana fans? Let fans sitting at home experience that.
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Part of elevating this new generation of stars to casual fans is to do those little extra things that elevate them. An on-screen graphic of the starting fives, like it’s a Thursday night in January, doesn’t do the event justice.
Let Shaq cook
Shaquille O’Neal, along with his “Inside The NBA” colleagues, will be joining the ESPN family next season after years of setting the standard for NBA entertainment on TNT.
One of the best moments of Thursday’s broadcast was Shaq unexpectedly crashing ESPN’s pre-game set on live TV.
.@SHAQ crashed the NBA Countdown set
NBA Finals Game 1 | NOW on ABC pic.twitter.com/vFOD0CohaR
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 6, 2025
That kind of spontaneity and frolic put into relief ESPN’s existing interpretation of the pre-game show — and why the network acquired the license to broadcast “Inside The NBA” next season.
With Shaq joining ESPN, the NBA and ESPN would be well-served to show him before the game, at halftime and during the game, if he is willing to chime in from his courtside seat. If Kenny Smith, also on-site helping with Turner’s NBA TV coverage, can jump in, all the better.
Fans can’t get enough of the “Inside”-style authenticity and camaraderie, and it has the additional benefit of highlighting that Shaq and the “Inside” crew will be appearing on ESPN starting this fall.
Are there any other adjustments you’d like to see from the NBA or ESPN about the game presentation? Leave them in the comments below.
(Photo: William Purnell / Getty Images)
