The NBA has a new sound — and it was built by one of the most acclaimed composers working in film and television today, alongside one of rap’s most enduring voices. Nicholas Britell, the three-time Oscar-nominated composer behind the soundtracks for Succession, Moonlight, and Andor, has partnered with rapper Nas to create a new sonic identity for the league, debuting with the 2026 playoffs and designed to carry the NBA’s audio branding across every platform it now occupies.
The partnership began with a meeting between Britell and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver that neither side planned in advance. Britell told Silver it had been his dream to write music for the NBA. Silver, who had been looking for someone to create a new musical identity for the league, had been thinking the same thing. What followed was two years of work that resulted not in a single theme but in what Britell describes as a sonic landscape — modular pieces of music that can be isolated, layered, and expanded for different contexts, from a two-second broadcast tag to a full-length promotional film.
The first public glimpse came on April 18th, the opening day of the 2026 NBA playoffs, in a 90-second spot called Where Legacies Are Built. Nas provided the voiceover, intoning over accumulating strings and a driving hip-hop beat: “You know what time it is. We all do. There’s a shift in tone, a change in attitude. This is different. Some call it extreme intensity. Others say it’s sheer drama. But we know it by another name: This is the NBA playoffs.”
What the Music Actually Sounds Like — and Why It Works
At the heart of Britell’s composition is a downward phrase of four notes. It rolls and falls, he describes, like a basketball gently spinning as it is dribbled — simple enough to work as a short broadcast tag, rich enough to expand into something cinematic. The spot builds from that phrase outward, adding rhythmic low strings reminiscent of the pulsing bass line of Chariots of Fire — a piece that Britell has loved since childhood and that directly led him to study music in the first place.
As the music develops, a hip-hop beat enters. For everyone involved, including Nas, that was non-negotiable. “Hip-hop voices and influence has always gone hand in hand with the NBA,” Nas said. “They are married to each other in a way.” The sound also incorporates elements that can shift dramatically in tone — soft underscoring for contemplative moments, chopped-and-screwed textures for something rawer, and escalating drama for the highest-stakes playoff sequences.
Britell worked closely with Nas on both the music and the words. The text of Nas’s voiceover was a back-and-forth collaboration with the league around themes of tension, legacy, and greatness — the words that define what the NBA playoffs mean to the people who play in them and the people who watch.
The project also carries personal resonance for Britell beyond his own childhood memories. He hosted NBA players at his home during the creative process, asking what music moved them, what they wanted to feel. Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, it turned out, loves Star Wars — and was thrilled to be in the company of the man who scored Andor.
Why the NBA Needed a New Sound
Silver has been watching the fragmentation of broadcasting for years. The NBA now airs across multiple platforms simultaneously, reaching audiences through different broadcasters and digital services with no consistent audio branding to connect those experiences. The NBC chimes, which Silver remembered from childhood, achieved something that lasted decades. John Tesh’s Roundball Rock did the same — when the NBA reintroduced it last year after licensing issues were resolved, Silver said he received an “enormous number of emails from fans who were thrilled it was back.”
The new Britell-Nas identity is designed to become that kind of connective tissue — something that sounds like the NBA regardless of where you encounter it. Silver is not requiring broadcasters to use it but hopes it catches on organically. His measure of success is characteristically understated. “The greatest compliment,” he said, “is to become someone’s ringtone.”
Whether that happens will depend on whether the music does what the best sports branding always does — make you feel something before you even understand why.
📩 Stay informed. Subscribe to the JournalTodays Newsletter for the latest sports, music, and entertainment news delivered straight to your inbox.
