NBC’s return to NBA coverage last season offered longtime basketball fans a dose of nostalgia. The venerable broadcast network regained the league’s rights as part of an 11-year media deal, reviving the iconic theme song that accompanied NBA broadcasts from 1990 to 2002.
Disney-owned ESPN and Amazon Prime Video also joined the deal, which marked the NBA’s move away from longtime broadcast partner TNT. As NBC prepared to launch its 2025-26 NBA coverage, the network announced that former Chicago Bulls superstar and six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan had been named a “special contributor.”
Some interpreted the announcement as a signal that Jordan would become a regular presence on the studio desk. Instead, his role amounted to a single sit-down interview with lead play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, which NBC split into several segments and aired throughout the season.
MICHAEL WILBON REVEALS JORDAN’S TRUE FEELINGS ABOUT LEBRON
Jordan is not expected to reprise his role when the 2026-27 NBA season tips off next Tuesday. Nearly a year after NBC’s announcement, questions about Jordan’s limited involvement continue to linger.
Tirico argued that continued interest in the interview validated NBC’s decision to let Jordan’s limited role speak for itself.
“I love the fact that we did one interview —and you can say what you want about it airing once or being spread out over our series of pregame shows during the year— it’s a year later and people are still talking about it,” Tirico said Tuesday in New York City during an onstage interview at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit. “And people are still asking about it. Which, to me, is all the reason that it was completely worth it.”
Instead of addressing the NBA’s daily headlines or weighing in on current players, Jordan’s interview focused on broader topics, including load management and his enduring love for basketball.
That approach may have disappointed viewers hoping to hear the basketball icon discuss players such as LeBron James or major storylines such as the controversy involving Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers. Tirico, however, maintains that the segments provided an authentic view of Jordan’s personality.
THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!
“I think Michael Jordan hadn’t been on TV for a long time for a reason,” Tirico said. “He likes being Michael Jordan. Even still, when he’s on camera, there’s an aura about Michael Jordan that is just different. Sitting across from him. It’s just a different feel. I think he is above the daily discourse of, ‘Hey, who is the best point guard in the NBA right now?’ and ‘who’s the best this or the best that?’”
If another sit-down can be arranged in the future, Tirico would eagerly welcome Jordan back, regardless of the subject matter.
“I will say that it was damn cool to hang with MJ and talk basketball, and talk business and golf and all that other stuff,” Tirico said. “If he wanted to be— we would all run to have him on every single day. But that’s just not what he wants to do, I think, at this point in his career and life.”
The NBA opens the 2026-27 season on Oct. 20 with a three-game slate beginning with an afternoon matchup between the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons. The defending champion New York Knicks then host the new-look Philadelphia 76ers, while the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs close the night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
