ESPN and TNT Sports are betting that an NBA playoffs mix of new entrants and traditional powerhouses will help drive viewership of the league’s postseason games. 

Following this week’s play-in tournament, the next phase of the NBA postseason tips off this weekend with all 16 playoff teams playing across TNT, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. Sports programmers point to the infusion of new teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder — the top seed in the Western Conference — as well as the Eastern Conference qualifiers Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers, as an opportunity to draw in new viewers while increasing the interest for hard-core fans. 

Also Read: NHL, NBA Playoffs Begin; Haney-Garcia PPV Boxing Event: What’s on This Weekend in TV Sports 

“The teams that are supposed to be in the playoffs are there, and it should be really competitive,” Warner Bros. Discovery Sports chief content officer Craig Barry said. “It’s great to see new teams like the Orlando Magic start to rise up and to see teams like the New York Knicks back in the playoffs, while still having the defending champion Denver in the mix as the team to beat. It’s great that the league continues to evolve and become more competitive.” 

ESPN head of event and studio production Dave Roberts also said the lineup of playoff teams offers viewers new faces and competitive matchups, particularly in the Western Conference. 

“What’s great about this is you have a host of new stars coming aboard, whether it's Oklahoma City and Minnesota Timberwolves, and of course the Lakers are right there as well,” Roberts said during a recent ESPN NBA Playoffs media conference call. 

The NBA is hoping to top last year’s playoffs audience of 5.4 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT, which was the most-watched playoffs in five years, according to the league.

The league is coming off two straight nights of double-digit ratings increases for the play-in tournament. TNT’s Tuesday night coverage of the Los Angeles Lakers-New Orleans Pelicans and Golden State Warriors-Sacramento Kings telecasts averaged 3.98 million viewers across TNT and TruTV, up 37% from the 2023 play-in games, according to Sports Media Watch. 

Wednesday’s Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks-Chicago Bulls games on ESPN averaged 3.25 million viewers, up 25% from last year’s play-in games, according to Sports Media Watch.

WBD’s Barry said TNT Sports is up to the task of educating viewers on the new playoff entrants throughout its coverage of the postseason. “We’re in the business of storytelling, so this is an opportunity to tell some fresh stories about some of these teams that are coming into the playoffs,” he said. “We spend so much time talking about the Celtics, Lakers and Warriors, so for our guys it’s a fresh take for them because some of these teams don’t appear on our air too often. This is a great opportunity to breathe in some fresh air with our coverage and watch these very talented teams compete.” 

Charter Communications will officially take its regional sports network built around the Los Angeles Lakers over the top with the launch of Spectrum SportsNet+ on Sunday, when the Lakers visit the Sacramento Kings in a 9 p.m. ET NBA Western Conference early-season showdown. 

The DTC service will be a 24/7 streaming version of the RSN, running those who don't subscribe to a pay TV service affiliated with SportsNet $19.99 a month, or $179.99 a season. It’s the first time the Lakers channel, built around a 20-year, $3 billion deal signed with the team back in 2012, has become available without a pay TV subscription.

Spectrum, DirecTV and Cox Communications pay TV subscribers, however, will have access to the DTC service as part of their cable or satellite subscription.

Also Read: Charter DTC Offerings For Lakers and Dodgers Should Launch Ahead of 2023-24 NBA Season, Cost as Much as $30 a Month

Notably, Charter said the service is “powered by the NBA’s next-gen integrated digital platform” -- SportsNet+ is accessible through the NBA app and NBA.com, which has app support for iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as Roku, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV connected TV platforms. Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox gaming consoles are also supported.

Charter is also queuing up a DTC component for SportsNet LA, the official home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, although details probably won't be announced until we move closer to the 2024 MLB season next spring.

“With the start of the NBA regular season, the launch of Spectrum SportsNet+ will allow even more fans to enjoy live Lakers games and in-depth, unique coverage of their favorite team, with or without a pay TV subscription,” Dan Finnerty, senior VP and general manager of Spectrum Sports, said. “By offering a variety of packages, we’re giving fans more choice and flexibility and taking another step towards evolving the regional sports network model in this new era of sports viewing.”

This weekend’s lineup of live tv sports events starts on the basketball court as the WNBA tips off its 2023 season.

The league, which is coming off a strong ratings run during its 2022 campaign and which welcomes back star Brittney Griner after her detention in a Russian prison, will feature two Saturday games on ABC pitting the Atlanta Dream against the Dallas Wings, and the defending league champions Las Vegas Aces against the Seattle Storm.    

In the NBA, ABC will air Game 3 of the Western Conference championship between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers, with Denver up two games to none in the series. On Sunday, TNT will air Game 3 of the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat Eastern Conference championship series.

On the ice, TNT will televise Game 2 of the Florida Panthers-Carolina Hurricanes NHL Eastern Conference Finals while ABC on Sunday will air Game 2 of the Dallas Stars-Vegas Golden Knights Western Conference Finals. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN Plus Saturday will distribute a pay-per-view card headlined by the Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko undisputed lightweight championship fight. ESPN Plus will also distribute a Saturday UFC Fight Night card featuring a main event women’s strawweight bout between Mackenzie Dern and Angela Hill. 

On the baseball diamond, Peacock on Sunday will stream the New York Yankees-Cincinnati Reds game, while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will pit  the Cleveland Indians against the New York Mets. 

ESPN and CBS will offer final round weekend coverage of the PGA Championship golf tournament, while Fox on Sunday will air the Professional Bowlers Association’s Super Slam Cup tournament. 

On the football field, week six of the USFL season kicks off Saturday with USA Network's telecast of the Pittsburgh Maulers-Memphis Showboats game while Fox airs the Birmingham Stallions-Michigan Panthers matchup. Sunday’s action includes FS1’s New Orleans Breakers-Philadelphia Stars telecast and Fox’s New Jersey Generals-Houston Gamblers game. 

On the track, NBC on Saturday will air The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. 

HBO will chronicle the life and career of NBA Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neal in a new documentary series debuting in November.

The four-part series, Shaq, will focus on the basketball legend whose larger-than-life personality transcended the sport and transformed him into a cultural icon, according to the network. 

The series will feature interviews with O’Neal’s teammates Penny Hardaway, Dwayne Wade, Dennis Scott, Brian Shaw, Derek Fisher and Rick Fox as it documents O'Neal's  ascent to NBA superstardom — which included four NBA titles and a league Most Valuable Player honor — as well as his successful off-the-court broadcasting and business ventures, HBO said. 

Shaq is produced by Robert Alexander and Peter Berg’s Film 45 production company. 

Also: Warner Bros. Discovery Ponies Up for Cast of 'Inside the NBA'

O’Neal said in a statement: “We kept this documentary real from the start, and I do feel like it is the most honest look into my life and career up until this point. This process allowed me to reflect publicly in a way I haven’t before, and I’m so proud of the work everyone has done to put it all together.” ■

ESPN will offer NBA fans an extra gift on Christmas Day by simulcasting all five games of the league’s traditional holiday schedule on both ABC and the cable network.

The move marks the first time the five games will appear on both The Walt Disney Co.-owned networks in the 21-year history of the programming stunt, with the first game beginning at noon Eastern Time and the last game tipping off at 10:30 pm., said ESPN officials. Last year ABC and ESPN both aired three of five games, with ESPN airing the early afternoon and late night contests. 

Overall, ESPN and ABC averaged 4.1 million viewers for its five-game NBA Christmas Day lineup last year up against stiff competition from NFL games, the lowest audience since the league began its five-game schedule in 2008, according to Sports Business Journal.

“NBA on Christmas is one of the best holiday traditions in sports, and this is a great example of how we view programming more holistically than ever before,” ESPN VP of programming and acquisitions Matt Kenny told Multichannel News. “This is a natural extension of how we continue to optimize platforms across The Walt Disney Co. to better serve fans.”

ESPN and ABC’s Christmas schedule begins with Philadelphia 76ers-New York Knicks at noon (ET), followed by Los Angeles Lakers-Dallas Mavericks at 2:30 p.m.; Milwaukee Bucks-Boston Celtics at 5 p.m.; Memphis Grizzlies-Golden State Warriors at 8 p.m.; and Phoenix Suns-Denver Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. 

“We are thrilled that ABC and ESPN will simulcast all five games on Christmas Day, which is one of the marquee days on the NBA calendar,” NBA president of content and executive producer Gregg Winik said. 

This Christmas Day, the NBA games will compete with three regular-season NFL games on NBC, CBS and Fox, including a primetime matchup on NBC between Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Arizona Cardinals. The NBA is well-positioned to draw in its share of fans on the holiday, Kenny said. 

“There’s never been more competition in the marketplace, whether it's Christmas or otherwise, so we’re really focused on doing the absolute best we can to serve NBA fans on Christmas Day and throughout the season,” he said. ■  

Apple TV Plus hits the basketball court April 22 with a new documentary on the life and career of NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, but They Call Me Magic doesn't play in the same arena as ESPN’s successful sports doc The Last Dance, according to Johnson.

The four-part series follows Johnson’s trek from humble beginnings in Lansing, Michigan to becoming a five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers. It also details the basketball icon's battle with HIV and his evolution into a successful entrepreneur. 

Also: HBO's 'Winning Time' Scores Second Season

While some viewers may look to compare the documentary with ESPN's 2020 Michael Jordan-focused The Last Dance sports documentary, Johnson -- speaking at a Television Critics Association Press Tour panel on the series this past February -- said that They Call Me Magic reaches well beyond his basketball career.

“The Last Dance was all about basketball and Michael's mindset and attitude toward winning … this is about my family and this is about me being a businessman,” Johnson said. “So it's so many different things that you're going to get out of this documentary and it's totally different from The Last Dance.” ■

HBO will suit up for a second season of its basketball-themed drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty  the network said Thursday.

The series follows the exploits of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers NBA championship teams and its core players, including Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson and Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, as well as its owner Jerry Buss. 

Winning Time, based on the book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman, will conclude its freshman run on HBO May 8, according to the network. 

The series stars John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Jason Clarke, Adrien Brody, Gaby Hoffmann, Tracy Letts and Jason Segel.

“It’s been a thrill to bring Winning Time to life with Adam McKay, Max Borenstein, our phenomenal producing team, and this incredible cast,” said  Francesca Orsi, Executive VP of HBO Programming in a statement. “This series not only tells the riveting story of the Lakers’ rise, but is also a look back at a transformative era in basketball, celebrity, and the city of Los Angeles. We can’t wait to see how this team will tell the next chapter of this dynasty.” 

Also: Scripted Sports Series In Play for Networks, Streaming Services

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is executive produced by  Adam McKay, Max Borenstein, Kevin Messick, Jim Hech, Rodney Barnes, Jason Shuman and Scott Stephens.

Also:  Review: 'Winning Time: The Rise of  the Lakers Dynasty'

The lineup of TV sports events for the first weekend of March starts on the college basketball court as several conference tournaments kick off leading up to the March Madness tournament.

Tournaments from conferences such as the Big South, Sun Belt, Southern Conference, Big South, Missouri Valley, CAA, Atlantic Sun, Northeast, Missouri Valley, Summit League, Ohio Valley, Patriot League and West Coast will take place on Saturday and Sunday to determine which teams will qualify for automatic bids to the Big Dance.

Saturday games featuring top-ranked teams in action on TV include third-ranked Baylor-Iowa State (ESPN2), fourth-ranked Duke-North Carolina (ESPN), fifth-ranked Auburn-South Carolina (SEC Network), sixth-ranked Kansas-Texas (ESPN) seventh-ranked Kentucky-Florida (CBS), and eight-ranked Purdue-Indiana (ESPN). On Sunday, tenth-ranked Wisconsin battles Nebraska on the Big Ten Network.  

On Sunday, several conference finals in women’s college basketball will take place, including the ACC final (ESPN), the Atlantic 10, Big Ten and SEC finals (ESPN2).

On the NBA front, ABC on Saturday will air a primetime matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. On Sunday afternoon, the network will air an NBA doubleheader lineup featuring the Brooklyn Nets against the Boston Celtics, and the Phoenix Suns battling the Milwaukee Bucks. Two more NBA games will air on ESPN Sunday night, including the Toronto Raptors-Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks-LA. Clippers.

ABC will also air a Saturday afternoon Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers NHL telecast, while on Sunday TNT will air the afternoon Dallas Stars-Minnesota Wild contest.

On the links, NBC and the Golf Channel will offer final round weekend coverage of the PGA Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament, while FS1 will take to the lanes to televise the Pro Bowlers Association's Roth/Holman Doubles tournament. 

NBC and USA Network will offer weekend coverage of the Paralympics from China.

On the soccer field, NBC on Saturday will air the West Ham-Liverpool Premier League contest, while USA Network on Saturday and Sunday will offer live Premier League doubleheader action. On Sunday, ESPN and FS1 will air live MLS games.  

FS1 on Saturday will air the Xfinity Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas auto race.

In the octagon, ESPN PPV will distribute the UFC 272 fight card featuring a main event bout between welterweights Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal. 

Cable networks and streaming services will usher in the month of March with several high-profile premieres.

HBO on March 6 will premiere its basketball-themed drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which follows the exploits of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers championship teams. 

On March 3, Paramount Plus will premiere the sophomore season of Star Trek spinoff series Picard, starring Patrick Stewart. The series follows Stewart – who reprises his role as Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation – as he enlist friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future, according to the streaming service.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of February 28 to March 6 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

 Feb. 28 – Better Things (returning series) – FX 

March 1 – The Larry David Story (documentary) – HBO

March 3 – Dicktown (returning series) -- FXX

March 3 – The Dropout (drama) – Hulu

March 3 – Gaming Wall Street (documentary) – HBO Max

March 3 – He-Man and the Masters of The Universe (animation) – Netflix

March 3 – Joe vs Carole (drama) – Peacock

March 3 – Our Flag Means Death (comedy) – HBO Max

March 3 – The Problem with Jon Stewart (talk) – Apple Tv Plus

March 3 – The Tourist (drama) – HBO Max

March 4 – After Yang (drama) – Showtime

March 4 – Dear … (documentary) – Apple Tv Plus

March 4 – The Boys Presents: Diabolical (animation) – Prime Video

March 4 – Fresh (thriller) – Hulu

March 4 – Lucy and Desi (documentary) – Prime Video

March 4 – Pieces of Her (drama) – Netflix

March 6 – Outlander (returning series) – Starz

March 6 – Shining Vale (comedy/horror) – Starz

As Stimpson J. Cat would say whenever The Muddy Mudskipper Show would hit the airwaves, "Don't let it start! Don't let it start!"

Yes, you can probably tell by that arcane reference that Next TV's Los Angeles office is a little geeked up for HBO Max's biographical series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which recounts the late Jerry Buss' purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the subsequent events that kickstarted the transformation of the team and the broader NBA from stodgy, niche, third-tier pro sports entities into star-powered global phenoms. 

Our early observations of the 10-part Season 1 of the series, which premieres in March, from watching the first trailer:

> We're not sure at all if actor Quincy Isaiah has the handles to pull off the portrayal of the Magic Man himself, Ervin Magic Johnson, the player taken No. 1 by Buss in his first draft and who was most responsible for manifesting the owner's vision for a thrilling pro basketball team. And executive producer Adam McKay seems to be telling anyone in the celebrity media who will listen about how pulling the role of Jerry Buss out of Will Ferrell's hands and giving it to John C. Reilly ruined a lifelong friendship and professional partnership. But Reilly looks meant to play the roll of the USC chemistry professor turned real-estate tycoon turned playboy sports owner. 

> McKay seems to use little known talent for big key player roles, such as Hall of Fame Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) and All Star guard Michael Cooper (Delante Desouza). Notably, however, the part of Norm Nixon, the guard eventually usurped by Magic, only to be ignominiously offloaded to the downtrodden L.A. Clippers in return for future Lakers legend Byron Scott, is played by Nixon's son, DeVaughn Nixon. And rival Celtics legend Larry Bird gets played by Bo Burnham. 

> But man, the Lakers front office, circa-1980, gets some star power, with Adrian Brody playing slicked-back, four-time NBA Champion head coach Pat Riley, and Jason Segel portraying the one-time-champion coach, Paul Westhead, who was also shoved aside by the quietly ruthless Magic to make room for Riley. Oh, and there's Zero Dark Thirty's Jason Clarke in the role of "The Logo" himself, aka "Zeke from Cabin Creek," legendary former Lakers HOF guard and GM, Jerry West. 

> Not much is seen in the trailer of the Buss children, Jimmy Buss (played by McCabe Slye) and current-day Lakers chief Jeanie Buss (Hadley Robinson), who may have saved the franchise when she wrestled it away from Jimmy back in 2016. But the infighting and intrigue in recent years between the pair could spawn a sequel series worthy of HBO's Succession down the road. 

Here's that trailer:

HBO has released a first look trailer for its new drama series Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty.

The 10-episode series, debuting this March on HBO and streaming HBO Max, chronicles the professional and personal lives of the 1980s NBA Los Angeles Lakers squad, one of sports’ most revered and dominant dynasties and a team that defined an era, both on and off the court, according to HBO.

The ensemble cast includes John C. Reilly, Jason Clarke, Adrien Brody, Quincy Isaiah, Solomon Hughes, Austin Aaron, Jimel Atkins, Joey Brooks, Brett Cullen, Delante Desouza, Sally Field, Spencer Garrett, Molly Gordon, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Gaby Hoffman, Tracy Letts, Rob Morgan, Julianne Nicholson, DeVaughn Nixon, Sarah Ramos, Hadley Robinson, Jason Segel and Tamera Tomakili, said the the network. ■ 

The NBA Friday released the television schedule for the first half of its 2020-21 season, including its Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. holiday lineup of games.

ESPN and ABC will televise a total of 49 games during the first half of the season, which begins Dec. 22. The schedule includes five Christmas Day games --  New Orleans Pelicans-Miami Heat; Golden State Warriors-Milwaukee Bucks; Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics; Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers-Denver Nuggets. ABC will air five primetime Saturday night games through Feb. 27, beginning Jan. 30 with the Lakers-Celtics game.

TNT will air 36 games through Feb. 27, including a Dec. 22 opening night doubleheader featuring the Warriors and Nets, followed by Lakers-Clippers. TNT’s three-game Martin Luther King Jr. holiday lineup includes Warriors-Lakers, Phoenix Suns-Memphis Grizzlies and Bucks-Nets.

Related: NBA to Start New Season in September

NBA TV will air 61 live games during the first half of the season, beginning with a Dec. 26 tripleheader featuring the Grizzlies-Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers-New York Knicks, Houston Rockets-Portland Trailblazers games. 

The schedule for the second half of the season will be released at a later date, according to the league, which will play a truncated 72 game schedule due to the pandemic. 

 The National Basketball Association will begin a shortened 2020-21 season on Dec. 22, league officials said Tuesday.

As part of an agreement in principle announced Wednesday by the league and the National Basketball Players Association, the league will play a 72-game season -- down from its traditional 82-game schedule -- beginning on Dec. 22. Full regular-season and broadcast schedules will be released at a future date, said league officials. 

The 2020-21 NBA season will begin less than 75 days after the league’s 2019-20 season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. The league stopped play in March due to the pandemic but resumed play in July.

The NBA Draft will take place on Nov. 18, with free agency beginning on Nov. 20, according to the league. 

The National Football League kicks off its 2020 season tonight (Sept. 10) with NBC’s live coverage of Houston Texans-Kansas City Chiefs game, adding to what is emerging as a cornucopia of live sports content for fans to watch on broadcast and cable networks during the fourth quarter as the entertainment industry continues to recover from the COVID-19 outbreak.

The next few months will be an exhilarating and exhausting period for sports fans and network sports producers as the NBA Finals, NHL Stanley Cup finals, baseball’s playoffs and World Series, The PGA Masters Tournament, the Preakness Stakes -- the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown races -- and live NFL and college football regular season games are all scheduled to hit the field. That doesn't include the numerous live boxing, mixed martial arts, tennis and other pro sports events that are also set for action through the end of the year. 

With the launch of the traditional fall broadcast television season mostly on hold due to the pandemic-delayed production of scripted series, networks will lean on those live sports events to help fill the original programming void in primetime.

Just this past Sunday, three of the four major broadcast networks featured live sports programming in a primetime block usually reserved for new, original entertainment content. ABC aired the Houston Rockets-Los Angeles Lakers NBA Western Conference Semifinal game; NBC offered the first game of the Dallas Stars-Vegas Golden Knights NHL Western Conference Finals and Fox stepped into the boxing ring for a live fight card. Ratings have at least been solid and in some cases show there was pent-up demand: NBA games in primetime after the July restart were 80% ahead of the viewing before the March shutdown, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Usually everybody in the sports business works hard not to have major sports events bump into one another,” said sports analyst Lee Berke. “It’s going to be less so this year because of the pandemic. At the same time you’re going to have primetime nights of the week that are going to be bereft of original programming if not for sports.” 

The sports schedule is getting so packed for NBC that it will move a Sept. 19 Notre Dame-South Florida primetime telecast to sister cable service USA Network so it can televise a live NHL Stanley Cup playoff game.

Berke says while the glut of sports programming could dampen ratings for some live sports events, he believes there is a huge audience of sports fans willing to watch the games, particularly events that feature familiar and popular players and teams. 

“I think there is a big enough audience for all of it,” he said. “Some events will suffer, particularly if the events don’t have stars in place, but the flip side is the cupboard is bare on the entertainment side. You’ll have a much broader audience that will tune into live sports for the foreseeable future.”

As the NBA prepares to return to the court, NBA TV will preview each of the 22 NBA teams set to participate in the league’s restart beginning July 30, the network said Monday.

The daily Team Restart series will showcase each of the 22 NBA teams headed to Orlando for the league's season comeback beginning July 1 with the Los Angeles Lakers, the network said. The series will look at each team by recapping their season to-date, with highlights of the top moments as well as keys for the playoff push. NBA.com will have corresponding coverage for each team throughout the series.

The series coincides with the NBA’s June 26 release of its regular season schedule in which the 22 teams will play eight regular-season games at Walt Disney Resort in Orlando to determine the seeding of the 16 playoff teams.

TNT will air 18 restart games, including a July 30 doubleheader featuring the New Orleans-Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers-Los Angeles Clippers games. ESPN and ABC will combine to televise 20 live NBA seeding games beginning July 31.

NBA TV’s Team Restart schedule is as follows: (July 1) Los Angeles Lakers; (July 2) Milwaukee Bucks; (July 3) Los Angeles Clippers; (July 6) New Orleans Pelicans; (July 7) Boston Celtics; (July 8) Houston Rockets; (July 9) Philadelphia 76’ers; ( July 10) Toronto Raptors; (July 13) Denver Nuggets; (July 14) Dallas Mavericks; (July 15) Oklahoma City Thunder; (July 16) Miami Heat; (July 17) Utah Jazz; (July 20) Portland Trailblazers; (July 21) Indiana Pacers; (July 22) Memphis Grizzlies; (July 23) Brooklyn Nets; (July 24) Sacramento Kings; (July 26) San Antonio Spurs; (July 27) Orlando Magic; (July 28) Phoenix Suns; (July 29) Washington Wizards. 

ESPN tonight (Jan. 27) will re-air Kobe Bryant’s final NBA game in tribute to the late basketball star, who tragically died yesterday in a helicopter accident.

RELATED: NBA Star Kobe Bryant Dies In Helicopter Crash

The sports network will air the April 13, 2016 Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz game in which Bryant scored 60 points. ESPN will move its Kansas-Oklahoma State college basketball game to ESPN2 to make room for the telecast, said network officials. 

Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine passengers who died Sunday when a helicopter they were travelling in crashed in Calabasas, Calif.

In other Bryant tributes, HBO will air a retrospective on Bryant’s life and career during its Jan 28 episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Real Sports revisits two long form pieces on Bryant that book-ended his career: A 2000 feature reported by James Brown when Kobe was in his fourth season and a 2016 profile from correspondent Andrea Kremer as Bryant was ending his basketball career and transitioning to new endeavors in entertainment, sports and business, according to HBO.

The NBA said it has postponed the Jan. 28 Los Angeles Lakers-Los Angeles Clippers game "out of respect for the Lakers organization, which is deeply grieving  the tragic loss of Lakers Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash on Sunday." The league said the game will be rescheduled at a later date.

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Facebook Watch has renewed its docu-reality series Ball In The Family for a second season, said company officials.

RELATED: Reality TV’s Got Game

The series, which chronicles the lives of Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball and his family – including his outspoken father LaVar – will return for a 13-episode second season later this year, said the company.

The season one finale of the series, produced by Bunim/Murray Productions, will premiere Oct. 29, according to Facebook. 

NBA fans are still arguing over which of last night's season-ending NBA games was more thrilling: the Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors’ record setting 73rd regular season win over the Memphis Grizzlies, or Kobe Bryant’s spectacular 60-point performance in his final NBA game.

Not up for debate is the fact that ESPN was a big ratings winner in arguably the most exciting final night of any NBA regular season in recent memory. The 24-hour sports network carried both games – Golden State-Memphis on ESPN and Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz on ESPN2 – and drew more than 7 million viewers combined for games that began at 10:30 p.m. on the East Coast.

Golden State's win over Memphis, led by Curry’s remarkable 46 point effort – which included 10 three-pointers, giving Curry an unfathomable record of 402 three-pointers for the season – drew 3.6 million viewers last night according to Nielsen.

Bryant’s final pro game proved to be one for the ages, and an average of 3.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the Black Mamba ride off into the sunset in grand fashion, singlehandedly leading his Lakers to victory for the last time.

TNT, ESPN, NBA TV and ABC are all hoping the positive momentum generated from Wednesday's late-night games will translate into strong ratings performances for the first round of the NBA playoffs, which begin on Saturday.

HBO has set a Nov. 3 premiere date for its documentary on the life and career of NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the network said Friday.

The documentary, Kareem: Minority Of One will profile the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and six-time MVP as well as his societal impact and contributions off the court, said network officials.

Deborah Morales (On the Shoulder Of Giants) will produce the documentary, which will be executively produced by Mike Tomlin (Arli$$), said network officials.