ESPN’s new NBA theme song is here and you may not like the change, but you'll get used to it

You may not think about network theme songs very often, but if you regularly watch sports, you probably know them all very well.

That is one reason why it was particularly riveting to watch TikTokers choreograph dance moves for each network’s NFL theme song. If we had to describe any of these songs, most of us would likely not be able to remember a single note. But the moment you heard them, it felt like riding a bike for the first time in a while. They each fit like a glove!

While these jingles often fade into the back of our minds and live somewhere in the back of our minds like the name of our third-grade teacher, any change to the rhythm we are accustomed to sticks out like a sore thumb.

So be prepared for your brain to possibly feel a little bit strange when you first hear the new theme song for ESPN’s NBA coverage:

That feels innocuous enough, right? I mean, it’s totally fine.

By and large, it just sounds like most royalty-free music you can find online, and it’s inoffensive enough to blend into most situations. It’s a bit slow, but it will do.

But what you didn’t realize is that changing the theme song means we are likely not going to hear this song anymore.

ESPN and ABC’s old theme music was called “Fastbreak” by Nonstop Music. It was composed and arranged by Lisle Moore and Tony Dickinson and it debuted on ABC in 2004 and ESPN in 2006. (Before that, it used to sound like this.)

We won’t hear this particular theme song in the background over the tagline “This has been a presentation of ESPN, The Worldwide Leader in Sports” or “For Mark Jackson, Jeff van Gundy, Doris Burke, and our entire ABC crew, I’m Mike Breen saying thanks so much for watching.”

Instead, next time, it’ll be an entirely different tune in the background.

You’re going to hear the new song a lot, and it may sound funky at first. Soon enough, it will fold into the fabric of your life. Eventually, however, ESPN will change the theme song for its NBA coverage once more and we’ll start this process all over again.