Can't say as I'm dissapointed at this news - never liked NBC's coverage anyway, and that halftime show was just brutal. Hopefully, this means that we'll see more games on TV than the requisite Laker and Knicks games every week, those were rather dull.
A couple of notes: ABC will only show 15 games on national television during the course of the regular season as opposed to NBC's usual 34 game schedule. Also, ABC will only air the NBA Finals and none of the weekend games in the earlier playoff series. There could be up to 6 nationally televised games each week spread out over TNT/TBS/AOL TV. That is up from the 3, sometimes 4 games shown each week by the aforementioned stations.
"AOL TV" is going to replace CNN/SI. It will actually be partially O&O (owned and operated) by the NBA. That's where some of the value of this deal comes from. The rumor I'd heard is that games on the new station would also be simulcast on the currently existing NBA.COM network, if you get that.
Now if they can just fire Vecsey from TBS and have Charles for every game all will be right in the world of NBA broadcasting.
As long as you get TSN and Sportsnet, you will be fine fadeaway in terms of the All-star game. Azim da Dream
David Aldridge will replace Pete Vecsey. I don't know if thats a positive change or not. Can't stand the guy myself...