SVG Summit: David Stern, Dick Ebersol Reminisce Growth of the NBA on TV

If you missed this year’s SVG Summit, Dec. 15-16 at the New York Hilton Hotel, SVG has assembled video highlights of every single Day 2 session, allowing you to see what you may have missed during the day’s keynote conversations and panels. Full videos of every session will be available on the SVG Members page in the coming days, but SVG will showcase the best moments in a series of stories this week.

While the SVG Summit traditionally focuses on the current and future state of sports television production, this year’s Summit featured a keynote conversation with a pair of Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famers to discuss a key time in the history of sports and sports television. Former NBA commissioner David Stern and former NBC Sports executive producer and TV icon Dick Ebersol took to the stage on Tuesday afternoon to discuss their strongly linked career paths.

The two sports-business and -television legends reminisced and shared with the audience their memories on everything form the birth of the NBA as a television product to the impact of the “Dream Team,” and the game-changing property that was the NBA on NBC. They also shared their thoughts on the marketing of the league and its players during the 1990s as well as the current state of the league and its media.

Dick Ebersol on the legacy of David Stern and the impact of the NBA on NBC:

Stern on his path to the commissionership and the early days of the NBA on television:

Stern discusses the league’s relationship with its first major television partner, CBS:

Ebersol shares how NBC got its first rights agreement with the league and the role that NBA Inside Stuff played in the deal getting done:

Stern can’t take all of the credit for creating NBA Entertainment:

Stern and Ebersol discuss designing the NBA and its facilities for TV production beginning in the early ’90s:

Ebersol and Stern discuss the incredible impact of the original “Dream Team”:

Ebersol recalls the glory days of the NBA on NBC and the birth of the WNBA:

Stern shares his thoughts on the current state of the NBA in media:

Stern and Ebersol agree that the NBA has come a long way in the branding and marketing of both its league and its individual players:

Stern and Ebersol can’t underestimate the value of regional sports networks and their role in pushing innovative technology across the NBA:

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