Basketball extravaganza: Bringing the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers to global viewers in ESPN’s production of All-Access Paris

ESPN’s control room for the two NBA regular season games between the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers that are being played in Paris this week. The first took place on Thursday 23 January, and the second – which is also ESPN’s annual ‘All-Access’ game – takes places this Saturday 25 January.
The NBA and production partner ESPN are in Paris for All-Access Paris 2025, an extravaganza of basketball that is bringing Europe to the US.
Two NBA regular season games between the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers are playing out in Paris this week. The first took place on Thursday 23 January, and the second – which is also ESPN’s annual ‘All-Access’ game – takes places this Saturday 25 January.
“What better storylines can you have than Victor Wembanyama, the Olympic hometown hero returning as an NBA Superstar, giving the game the All-Access treatment, escalating production quality for all shows around the globe, and capping off the evening in the US with a Lebron James v Steph Curry rematch? It doesn’t get much better than that for NBA fans around the globe!”
The NBA Paris Games production for both matches is a collaboration and partnership between the NBA and ESPN. While the NBA is responsible for producing the world feed, it is utilising ESPN production staff and tech crew to produce the world feed, the clean feed, an ESPN-branded feed, and the NBA Mobile View feed (NBA alt cast) for both games. The second match on Saturday will air exclusively on ESPN.
All-Access Paris
The NBA Paris game on ESPN starts an important Saturday of NBA games leading into the opening games of the ABC Saturday game series, capping off with the rematch of Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers at Steph Curry and Golden State Warriors on ABC Saturday Primetime.
Prior to the NBA Saturday Primetime tripleheader on ABC taking place on Saturday 25 January in the US, ESPN will broadcast All-Access Paris, a special content initiative in conjunction with the Indiana Pacers versus San Antonio Spurs game from France.
ESPN choses one game per season to be designated as ‘All-Access’, which entails ENG crew coverage of the teams out and about in France in the week run-up to the matches, pregame and halftime locker room access, mic’d up players on each team including on this occasion French NBA star Victor Wembanyama as well as Tyrese Haliburton, as well as mic’d up coaches on each team, end of quarter player interviews, and a lot more.
Returning young French hero, Wembanyama, is a French professional basketball player for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, which he joined in 2023. Wembanyama also plays for the French national team, with whom he won a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics, and he’s been stirring up a storm in Paris this week.
Gold standard
Speaking to SVG Europe from Paris prior to the first of the two games, Okuno comments on why ESPN chose to make this Saturday’s game in Paris its All-Access match: “We have worked together with the NBA to create our standard of what we do in the States for ESPN game show level. One of the things that we decided to add on to every year in the United States is we have a game that we dedicate as All-Access. What that means is behind the scenes, the teams, the practises, the social media, all the socialisation, going to parties, and all that, you can see all the time on everybody’s personal social apps and stuff like that.
“And what better opportunity to do that with Wembanyama going back to his home country as a hero from the Paris Olympic Games, to now returning as an NBA superstar? The San Antonio Spurs landed I think back on Sunday, and have been doing all kinds of events throughout the week. We have been covering him and we have been sending back all of that footage starting on Monday to put on social pages, the NBA app, and ESPN back in the States. We have been promoting this game all week long.”
Multiple ENG crews have been following both teams and Wembanyama on their adventures in Paris as part of the All-Access treatment. Okuno adds: “Part of the All-Access treatment is the in-depth behind the scenes footage from NBA crews plus ESPN field crews, which is sent back to the US immediately using media shuttle or Layer 2 RPOC FTP workflows or live TVU connections.”
On Wembanyama, Okuno says: “The storyline of France’s own Victor Wembanyama returning home with his San Antonio Spurs playing against the Indiana Pacers has escalated the broadcasts to be our All-Access Game, where for the first time ever our player mics technology used in the US will be used during the Paris games.”
Adds Okuno: “What better storylines can you have than Victor Wembanyama, the Olympic hometown hero returning as an NBA Superstar, giving the game the All-Access treatment, escalating production quality for all shows around the globe, and capping off the evening in the US with a Lebron James v Steph Curry rematch?
“It doesn’t get much better than that for NBA fans around the globe!”