Common’s journey from Bulls ball boy to NBA theme song composer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When rapper-actor Common was a kid, he carried towels and sneakers as a Chicago Bulls ball boy who was close enough to hear the squeak of shoes and the roar inside the arena.

Decades later, Common is helping set a different kind of tone for basketball: He has teamed up with his longtime collaborators to compose “Victory” as the official theme for NBA on Prime, the streaming platform announced Thursday. He worked with Karriem Riggins and James Poyser on the song, which will be a part of Amazon’s first exclusive season of NBA coverage.

Common said he drew some inspiration for the song by watching basketball.

“Basketball has a soul to it,” said Common, a three-time Grammy winner, who has also won an Emmy and Oscar. “It’s nostalgic but forward. The rhythm, the harmony, the movement, the teamwork, the star player. We wanted to capture all that in sound.”

After learning Amazon wanted him as a composer, Common said one of his first calls was to his mother to share the news. It was a moment he described as a perfect partnership from the start.

“You never know where God is going to lead you,” Common said. “You just got to stay open and be true to your craft, because now I feel like I’m part of the NBA in the way I’m supposed to be.”

The song will serve as the signature sound of NBA on Prime each week starting with the upcoming season. It was recorded with a 70-piece orchestra at a studio in Nashville.

The trio — whose credits span hip-hop, jazz and soul — produced three versions of the score including orchestral, hip-hop and rock.

Manny Marroquin, a Grammy-winning engineer, will mix the final recordings before the theme’s Oct. 24 debut during Prime Video’s opening-night doubleheader featuring the Boston Celtics at the New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Poyser said it was important for the team to create a melody that could live in fans’ heads long after the broadcast.

“We knew it had to be something that you could just hum,” said the three-time Grammy winner. “Like when you hear it, you got to be able to remember the melody.”

“When you hear the orchestra hit and those drums drop, it just feels like the game,” added Riggins. “It’s got soul, energy and motion. Just like basketball.”

Prime Video executive Amina Hussein said the streaming platform wanted a “sonic identity” that felt true to the culture of the game.

“One thing that’s a baseline for everything we do is authenticity,” said Hussein, executive producer of NBA on Prime. She’s also head of U.S. sports on-air talent for Prime Video “We really want people to feel like they’re part of the broadcast. You want viewers at home to believe in you, to sit down, bob their heads with you, and feel like they’re watching the game with friends.”

For Common, the project felt like destiny fulfilled.

“I grew up wanting to play basketball, became a ball boy for the Bulls and was there for Michael Jordan’s first exhibition game,” said Common, whose late father, Lonnie Lynn, played in the American Basketball Association. “But as a musician now, I feel like I’m part of NBA history in the way I was meant to be.”

The collaborators hope “Victory” resonates for many generations — much like NBC’s “Roundball Rock” — and opens doors for more artists of color in sports scoring.

“Three Black men creating a theme song for the NBA on Amazon. That’s unprecedented,” Common said. “We hope some kid grows up hearing this and thinks, ‘We can compose too.’”