The (almost) definitive ranking of NBA team intro videos

Attending an NBA game is an experience. The home team is looking to hype up the crowd, build energy, and let it all pour down onto the court. Most teams begin that process, even before announcing their own starting lineup, with a heavily produced intro video — loud music, fiery graphics and, if you’re lucky, some background explosions. If you’re not actually at the arena you might never get a chance to see these videos, so I decided to compile them and rank them all here for your viewing pleasure.

Some forewarnings: this is completely subjective, I couldn’t find Blazers, Timberwolves or Pelicans intro videos from this season and many of the ones you see on this list have likely changed since. 

27. Utah Jazz

This is a really poor effort. Not using in-game footage is a cop-out, and the green screen stuff is hilariously generic. When Gordon Hayward “yells” it looks like he’s laughing. The Jazz staff had to throw in some effects to go with the team’s players, so they decided on random scary animals and shots of machinery. I’m not really sure what either have to do with the state of Utah or jazz music. Then there’s the song choice. The best intro video songs are ones fans recognize without feeling like they’ve heard it far too many times before. Unfortunately, “Jungle” falls in the overplayed category.

26. San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs start with some cool shots of San Antonio, a quick look at their dancers and mascot, show their entire roster’s faces, and that’s it. They even repeated players to stretch out the video. No in-game footage or even clearly rehearsed, fake green screen basketball. No heart was put into this.

Next: Nos. 25-21