Hardwood Classics - Format History

Format History

Each episode normally airs two hours in length (condensed down from the normal two-and-a-half-hour length of a live telecast), although there have been some episodes that were only thirty to sixty minutes long, due to lack of complete footage, or were preserved as newsreels for a majority of games played in the 1950s. And there are still some episodes which were aired in a full two-and-a-half hours of game time. Some recent games, however (e.g. 2008 NBA Finals) were shortened to only an hour despite the full two-hour availability of game footage; they did manage to air Game 4 of that series in full when it was shown as part of the Lakers vs. Celtics finals marathon in 2010. In addition, stock footage was also used and spliced to a previously aired game, as seen in the baseline camera angles substituting for the normal television game angles during Game 5 of the 1993 First Round between the New Jersey Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers.