A suggestion for basketball arena music: Encourage fan-made intro videos

If there's any part of a basketball game that gets me pumped up when it comes to music, its seeing the intro video of the team, right before the starting lineups are called. If there's one Intro Video that gets me pumped up to watch a basketball game better than any other out there, it's from the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era.:

But this video is of course a production of the team's game operations staff. Today, with technology as advanced as it is today, technologically-savvy fans can now make their own videos by piecing highlights with music and make near-professional quality material if not something that is professional-quality altogether.

That leads me to something, though I don't think it is totally ingenious. Professional basketball (NBA, WNBA, and D League), and major conference college basketball teams (if their arenas have video scoreboards) should open this area to their fans to show their creativity. Have contests for fans to submit YouTube videos for a 60 to 90 second intro video before the home team's starting lineups. On top of that, let's not restrict what type of music a fan can use. I think almost any music type can make an intro video unique and get the fans in the mood for the game.

If this video by Yude Productions can make a "tween-pop" singer's song fit in with basketball highlights on YouTube...:

...I think nearly any genre of music can fit in well with basketball highlights to make a team intro. This one above just shows Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and now it doesn't seem far-fetched to make this an intro-video for the whole team if a few highlights are changed in order to incorporate other Thunder players.

Teams can also switch up their intro videos as appropriate when using a fan-created one. Maybe a fan-created video can be used for Christmas time and a Christmas tune is playing. Maybe everyone wants a country song and then a country song can be used for the intro video, the list goes on and on.

I hear from some other basketball fans that they play too many rap songs, and let's face it, Rap and Hip Hop culture is a big part of basketball, especially for the NBA. Even Jay-Z, one of the most popular rappers in the music business now has a sports marketing group, Roc Nation Sports which this past Thursday received certification to represent NBA and MLB players.

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder is Jay-Z's first major NBA client according to reports. Not too far away in Tulsa for the WNBA, Jay-Z already got Shock rookie Skylar Diggins to join Roc Nation Sports this past April.

But doing things like fan-made intro videos for basketball teams could diversify music that's played in arenas and also increase fan involvement in the game day experience.

So do you like this proposed idea of having teams solicit fans to create team-intro videos? What other suggestions would you have for basketball teams in regards to the music they play in the arena? Stay the course? Change it all? Speak in the comments below, and if it appears to be a long response (more than two paragraphs or so), go ahead and make it a FanPost.