Haven’t gotten enough Michael Jordan from ESPN’s uber successful The Last Dance? Jordan LeBron James, and Charles Barkley will headline opening night of this week’s marathon of classic sports-themed Saturday Night Live episodes on NBCSN, beginning tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Tonight’s NBA hosting trio – Jordan, James, and Barkley – have combined to win 10 NBA MVPs, nine NBA Titles, nine NBA Finals MVPs, and Six Olympic gold medals.
This week in primetime, NBCSN will televise 20 SNL episodes dating back to the early 1990s that were hosted by the biggest names in sports. Following Jordan, James, and Barkley, the remaining hosts for SNL Week include (NBCSN appearance order): Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, J.J. Watt, Dwayne Johnson, Andy Roddick, John Cena, Ronda Rousey, Michael Phelps, and Derek Jeter.
Programming will also stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
Below is more information on tonight’s SNL Week programming:
MICHAEL JORDAN: SEPT. 28, 1991 AT 8 P.M. ET
Michael Jordan kicks off NBCSN’s SNL Week tonight at 8 p.m. ET. The episode features Jordan’s one and only SNL hosting appearance, which aired on Sept. 28, 1991, three months after he won the first of his six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls.
Widely regarded as the “greatest of all time,” Jordan won six NBA titles, six NBA Finals MVPs, five NBA MVP awards, and two Olympic gold medals, including one with the historic 1992 Olympic ‘Dream Team.’ The Hall of Famer holds records for the most NBA Finals MVP awards (six), and the highest career scoring averages in NBA regular-season (30.1 points per game) and playoff (33.4) history. Jordan also had a storied college career at North Carolina, highlighted by his freshman season in 1981-82, where he scored the winning points in the Tar Heels’ NCAA title game victory.
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LEBRON JAMES: SEPT. 29, 2007 AT 9 P.M. ET
One of only three players to win NBA Finals MVP awards for multiple franchises, LeBron James has become a media mogul and entertainer, appearing in Amy Schumer’s movie Trainwreck and starring in the new Space Jam sequel, set to release in 2021. Before all that, he tested his comedy chops in his only SNL hosting appearance on Sept. 29, 2007. The show highlights James’ opening monologue, LeBronologue, a parody of his own Nike commercial.
Currently with the Los Angeles Lakers, James has garnered four NBA MVP awards, three NBA titles, three NBA Finals MVP awards, and two Olympic gold medals. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, James began his career with an NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2004. After a seven-year stint with the Cavaliers, James led the Miami Heat to back-to-back NBA titles (2012 and 2013). James returned to Cleveland in 2014 and led the Cavaliers to their first-ever championship win in 2016 – the first for a major professional team in Cleveland since 1964. He was named MVP of the NBA Finals each of the three times his teams won.
CHARLES BARKLEY: JAN. 9, 2010 AT 10 P.M. ET
Charles Barkley joins entertainer, former college football player and professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson, as the only athletes to have hosted SNL multiple times. Barkley has hosted SNL from 30 Rock a total of four times – Sep. 25, 1993 (coming off his NBA MVP award-winning season with the Phoenix Suns); Jan. 9, 2010; Jan. 7, 2012; and March 3, 2018 – with the latter two encoring on NBCSN this Friday night. Since 2000, he has been an NBA analyst at Turner Sports, winning numerous awards and accolades.
Barkley, a 2006 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, established himself as one of the NBA’s most dominant power forwards, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets throughout his 16-year NBA career. In 1993, Barkley earned the league’s MVP award and led the Suns to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Karl Malone, Barkley is one of only six players in NBA history to have compiled at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Barkley was also a part of the iconic 1992 Olympic ‘Dream Team.’
Below is each night’s NBCSN highlighted content throughout the week:
SOURCE: NBC
