A new Roku channel gives viewers the chance to see the greatest basketball team ever assembled. No modern basketball fans, I am not talking about the Golden State Warriors. I’m talking about Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and the best players of the era on the same team. For those of you who only know Magic Johnson as a chubby wide grinning TV personality and Lakers exec and think that Lebron James has never had an equal, the chance to see the Dream Team in action in real-time will be a very educational experience. To those who grew up with the stars in the 80s and 90s the channel is a chance to look back at an exciting time in Olympics history when the International community finally allowed NBA players to participate in International competition. Fans can see the games from what appears to be the international feed without commentary gives you almost in the arena perspective. It gives you a chance to see the Dream Team take on Angola and its crisp passing attack without being fettered with commentary from the time, which was not much more than a commercial for NBC’s NBA coverage.
The Dream Team content is part of the Olympic channel, which is built to highlight the Olympics as a whole. Currently viewers can check re-watch extensive coverage of past events from the Last Winter Olympics including a bevy of figure skating action in full. Otherwise the content is built around the sort of personal stories that make athletes into stars and characters. There is a series on overcoming the tragic conditions of athletes from war-torn countries, a series on how participating in the games affected those involved, documentaries about sports in multiple countries and a lot more. Basically if you are a fan of the features during the olympics this channel will be a big gift to you.
The channel also features a live feed of the Olympic Channel’s cable feed. The Olympic Channel is available via providers across the country and requires that users sign in to watch live content. This though does not preclude users from enjoying the archived footage and anticipatory programming about the upcoming 2020 games in Tokyo.
Is this the same as the NBC Olympics Channel?
No the Olympic channel is actually a venture of the International Olympic Committee. Its companion linear TV channel is a separate network from NBC, which folds the its own “NBC Olympic Channel” under the NBC Sports banner. This is good news to fans of Olympic sports because it means a lot more content choices.
Lots to see
Overall the channel is a very robust offering that will hopefully increase its content as the opening ceremony grows closer. So stream on in and check it out. Oh Spoiler Alert. The Dream Team won the gold medal. No doubt because of the very important contributions of Christian Laettner who was put on the team ahead of 2-time NBA champ, Pistons guard Isiah Thomas. Most likely because the coaches felt the team did not have enough help in the post (with 4 NBA top 50 all time players) Patrick Ewing and David Robinson at center along with Charles Barkley and Karl Malone at Power Forward. And not due to the rumored vengeful Michael Jordan freezing out a former tormentor.
