The music promo is now something of a NBA tradition: Every year a different pop star—some more obvious choices for the NBA than others—offer up one of their singles to the league gods, remaking them into a playoff game promo spot, full of the previous game’s highlight drama. It’s a shame that while the past few months of basketball have been so good, this year’s commercials, which feature The Black Eyed Peas, the cast of Pitch Perfect 2, and various players performing the song "Awesome," have been so God-awful. The song consists almost entirely of a brain-drilling chorus of the word "awesome!" repeated again and again. In the video, the NBA players jump around mouthing the word "awesome" with forced smiles, proof that even superstar athletes feel weird at work-sponsored events.

Since this year’s commercial was so atrocious, we decided to go back in time and take a look at the times when playoff tunes were epic and great, or at least, less profoundly awful. Here are the past few years’ worth, ranked from worst to best.

15. "Right Now" by The Pussycat Dolls (2007)

This is one of the more bizarre choices for the official playoff commercial ever. Yes, Pussycat Dolls (remember them?) were at the peak of popularity in 2007. But it looks like the person behind this promo thought they could feature them purely with a sort of "sex sells" angle that ends up feeling weird. The Pussycat Dolls wearing jerseys turned into tight dresses shaking and shimmying between NBA jump cuts make this TV spot look more like subliminal messaging than anything else.

14. "Get on Your Boots" by U2 (2009)


Before Apple forced U2 onto our iPhones, the NBA forced the band onto the television sets during the playoffs. In the spot, various things explode at the sound of Bono screeching the song’s chorus "let me hear the sound!" Even the innocent bucket of popcorn at 0:27 can’t survive this U2 travesty.

13. "Nine Lives" by Def Leppard and Tim McGraw (2008)

Teams have seven games to win a series. So why is a song called "nine lives" ushering in the games? And another thing: why do these guys look like they’re huddled down in some Doomsday prepper’s bunker panicking about chemtrails? This song has absolutely no business in an NBA playoff commercial.

12. "Power" by Will.I.Am (2013)

It’s hard not to wonder if Will.I.Am is ever entirely serious. In this video he wears a jacket that looks like a basketball while doling out lyrics that sound like an SNL parody of itself: "I stay on that hustle, I flex that little muscle, Hate to bust your bubble, I’m on that other level." Totally.

11. "Burn it Down" by Linkin Park (2012)


This is one of the most ridiculous music videos I’ve ever seen. Everyone looks way too serious about burning "it" down, which is a kind of confusing message in a basketball game anyway. What are they burning? Why does Dwight Howard start breathing fire? Why does the court burst into flames? Despite these unanswerable questions, this video does something to you--deep down it makes you want to burn shit.

10. "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera (2003)

Here we have a young Christina Aguilera hitting some classic early 2000s choreography on a basketball court while a pumped-up crowd cheer her on like she’s locked in gladiatorial combat.The most important thing about this video, however, is the piece of NBA bling Aguilera adorns in the opening shot. Hell yes.

9. "Black Dog" by Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience featuring Nicole Scherzinger (2011)

Someone out there was probably really excited about this song, my guess the one existing Zep fan who also has a strange, secret love for The Pussycat Dolls. For everyone else, this was a compromise that hurt everyone.

8. "Let’s Get It Started" by The Black Eyed Peas (2004)


In 2004, "Let’s Get it Started" infected just about every TV commercial, stadium, car radio, and Dairy Queen parking lot in the land. It’s no surprise that the NBA took note. Despite the song’s oversaturation that year, it actually found a pretty good home in NBA playoffs commercials. The video has some cool effects that are pretty impressive, especially by 2004 shapeshifting standard. And did we see Shaq? The best part is that all of this happens before the shot clock runs out!

7. "Runnin Down a Dream" by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (2007

Tom Petty is always a good decision, period. This isn’t the hip-hop or pop banger we’ve come to expect from the NBA but it’s still an okay song all around, and certainly better than The Pussycats Dolls travesty that aired over on ABC that year. Unfortunately the video has almost no charisma, the band just sort of sits there. Also, we would’ve liked to see maybe 10 to 15 more basketball references squeezed in.

6. "Remember The Name" by Fort Minor (2006)

There was a time when music videos needed to feature everyone in the recording studio to look legit, as if we wanted proof that there were real people singing the song or something. The NBA took the trend full force in 2006 and had the whole Fort Minor crew perform their one and only song like a house band at a jazz club.

5. "Come Get it Bae" by Pharrell (2014)


This is a pretty cool song in every situation except the playoffs. We don’t want to think of NBA players as ’bae,’ or at least, we don’t want to think of them as coming to "get it" when a game’s about to start. All of the sensual cutaways give off a sexy vibe that we’re not sure what to make of. Also, we’re not sure we really want to think about the word ’bae’ at all. Still though, it’s Pharrell, so you can obviously still dance to it.

NBA on TNT 2014 Playoffs Image - "Come Get It Bae" by Pharrell from Drew Watkins on Vimeo.

4. "Amazing" by Kanye West (2009)

People laughed at Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreaks, but not the NBA. They always knew this song was a perfect soundtrack to a mythological season of basketball. Sure, it’s autotuned to all hell, but this song still holds up, dammit.

3. "Fight to Win" by Goodie Mob featuring Cee Lo Green (2012)

This is just a fantastic song. It’s harrowing, loud, and triumphant. Listening to this before a playoff game makes you feel like you’re in a playoff game. Just look at Cee Lo’s face in the video. Inspiring.

2. "Timber" by Pitbull featuring Kesha (2014)

This was an alternate intro for the NBA playoffs last year. Instead of Pharrell’s ill-fitting "Come Get it Bae" viewers got the infectious Pitbull song that everyone’s mom really likes. This was a year before Pitch Perfect 2, so the NBA gets extra points for getting to the song before we all got sick of it. Also, they get the most points for getting Pitbull to change the lyrics to include "playoffs."

1. "Winner" by Jamie Foxx and Justin Timberlake (2010)

In 2010, NBA fans got Justin Timberlake, fresh from his ’Sexyback’ revival, alongside "Blame it’ era Jamie Foxx on the pretty damn good song "Winner." The song is about believing in yourself and saying fuck you to all the haters. In the NBA commercial, JT and Jamie Foxx argue about basketball until deciding to duke it out on the courts themselves. The only bad part of this whole video is that we never find out who wins.