The (almost) definitive ranking of NBA team intro videos
25. New York Knicks
Coming into this, I had to decide whether I would award or dock teams for on-court projections. I chose the former, simply because it’s easier to watch a video played on a 94-foot-long surface than on a smaller jumbotron. But to rank highly with a projection, you still had to execute well. The Knicks did not. Fifty percent cool visual effects with the projection that has nothing to do with basketball or the Knicks. Fifty percent shots of players standing there, doing nothing. But perhaps the most egregious offense? The song choice. You’re the NEW YORK Knicks. Nas or Jay Z would have killed you? You’ve done it before.
24. Orlando Magic
The majority of the video is just playing with the on-court projection’s effects, but once we cut to the jumbotron and the music switched up, I thought, “hey this may end up being pretty good!” Not so much. Sorry, but shots of your players doing basketball stuff in an empty gym with little to no effort isn’t fooling anybody. Shots of your players standing around isn’t helping, either.
23. Indiana Pacers
The Pacers went outside of the box with this one, but that doesn’t mean a lot of effort was put into it. Every clip is from some sort of fan event Indy put on, and although the player-fan interactions are nice touches, the basketball itself feels very inorganic. I’m not huge on visual effects, but having none makes this feel amateurish. A quick lens flare here and there or maybe a yellow or blue hue over the whole thing would give it an extra spark. The song Indy used, from what my research can tell, is some sort of team theme song used for this video alone. I can’t find it anywhere else. Team theme songs are risky business as they usually never stick with fans, and this one isn’t great.
22. Miami Heat
Props to the Miami Heat staff for making an intro video vastly different from the league’s 29 other teams. Credit is due there, but this just falls short. It’s never good to disclude basketball from an intro video meant to get fans excited for a basketball game. Making your players dress up and pose like it’s a GQ photoshoot is fine, so long as it doesn’t take up the entirety of the video. I actually burst out laughing whenever Josh McRoberts appeared; you have one tough dude looking like a model. None of the players’ poses are even remotely menacing or even serious. The video just screams, “hey fans check out how pretty our basketball players are!” Brownie points for the various backdrops of Miami, one of the prettiest cities in the country. Probably should have taken advantage of that some more.
21. Milwaukee Bucks
This ranking isn’t concrete since this is Milwaukee’s opening night video and has likely changed since, but there’s nowhere to go but up. This isn’t a hype video, it’s a cold marketing presentation. The whole thing is dubbed over by a Bucks executive for crying out loud. A coach’s inspiring pre-game speech? Nah, really old dude making blanket statements! There’s also a little too much focus on the new jerseys and logo, but at least they actually threw in some in-game footage.
Next: Nos. 20-16