- NBC Sports will use a version generated by the legendary announcer Jim Fagan in its next NBA coverage
- Recreation will appear in introductions and promotions with the approval of Fagan’s family
- NBC expects to evoke nostalgia for the basketball of the 1990s with the voice of AI
Jim Fagan’s rise baritone narration is as part of the NBA games of the 1990s as Bunny Bunny selling shoes with Michael Jordan or the musical song “Roundball Rock”. Although Fagan died in 2017, NBC has its voice ready for the next season thanks to the voice cloning of AI. NBC Sports announced the plan for when you recover the transmission rights this October.
Fagan’s voice will not narrate complete games, current commentators do not yet have to worry about the direct competition of AI. The plan is to use it selectively: show opens, promotional points, perhaps the dramatic advance to a playoff transmission.
According to the reports, the network is disbursing billions as part of a massive mass package shared with Amazon and Disney. What better way to mark his return than with the voice that defined the years of glory of the league? NBC only expects Fagan’s ghost voice to remind people of the NBA Golden Age three decades.
NBC approached the project carefully to avoid a reaction from Fagan fans. The company built Fagan’s vocal doppelgar with the permission and cooperation of Fagan’s family.
“He was proud of his work with NBC Sports, especially to help prepare the stage for some of the most memorable moments in the NBA history. Knowing that his voice will be part of the game he loved again, and that a new generation of fans will experience it, it is incredibly special for our family.” “I would be very excited and proud to be part of this.”
Slam Dunk AI
If this sounds like the echo of a similar idea, it is because Nbcuniversal has submerged in its AI AUDIO toolbox very recently. At the Paris Olympic Games last year, NBC recreated Al Michaels’s voice to deliver Olympic summaries in Peacock.
There is a trend in sports transmission to remix the past using futuristic tools. These are classic songs, setback logos or summaries generated by AI, the objective is novel nostalgia, a feeling rather than a strictly perfect recreation. And if it works, prepare so that AI will resurrect Marv Albert below.
