When NBC Sports hired Michael Jordan for its NBA coverage, the GOAT didn’t come in as your typical color commentator or studio analyst. Instead, NBC grandly announced MJ as a special contributor. With a net worth of $3.5 billion as estimated by Forbes, Jordan didn’t even bother to show up for the network’s big announcement during its upfront presentation in New York. Instead, he appeared via videotape—drawing gasps from the audience. 

So goes the evolution of the Jordan Rules. From MJ’s hardwood heyday in the 1990s to the NFL’s Patrick Mahomes today, superstars simply get different, better treatment than everybody else. The same dynamic is changing sports media.

The biggest names like Jordan, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady are making their own rules at NBC, ESPN, and Fox Sports. Networks are responding with creative thinking instead of trying to squeeze mega-stars into old and tired boxes. 

To perform his duties with NBC, Jordan doesn’t show up at live games or visit a studio at the media giant’s corporate campus in Stamford, Conn. Instead, play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico goes to him, with the duo taping an interview series dubbed “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” at one of Jordan’s homes. There’s been two installments so far. FOS first reported this week that, if all goes well, the six-time NBA champion will sit down two or three more times this season; possibly to discuss the All-Star Game and NBA Playoffs (NBC denied this report, calling it “all speculation and overwhelmingly inaccurate”). But make no mistake: The ball remains firmly in Jordan’s court.

Do viewers want more MJ? Sure. Is NBC bending over backwards to accommodate the 62-year-old Jordan? Of course. But other networks have tried and failed to recruit Jordan to their coverage since he retired from the NBA at age 40 in 2003. The six-time NBA champ was by far the biggest “get” among all the off-season hires by NBC, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN. One sports TV executive gives NBC credit for thinking outside the box. 

“Any time you get Michael Jordan to do anything, it’s amazing,” he says. “Would NBC like to use Jordan in many different ways? Sure. But this is what they got. They probably negotiated that Tirico would do the interviews because he feels comfortable with Tirico. There’s probably boundaries and margins they can’t cross. You get what you get.”

Similarly, when ESPN aired The Last Dance in 2020 about the dynastic Bulls, it had to kowtow to Jordan, who retained control over the archival footage. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns huffed he would “never” have agreed to such an arrangement. But that was the price of ESPN doing business with No. 23. The Last Dance drew sensational ratings during the COVID-19 shutdown. 

The story was similar after Manning retired from the NFL after his Super Bowl 50 win with the Broncos in 2016. ESPN pursued Peyton the White Whale for its traditional Monday Night Football booth with Captain Ahab-like zeal. But Manning didn’t bite. So ESPN tried different tactics. 

First, ESPN gave Peyton Manning his own show, Peyton’s Places, on ESPN+ in 2019. That established a working, business relationship. Then the four letters worked closely with Manning’s startup, Omaha Productions, which launched in 2020. Finally, ESPN agreed for Manning to call MNF remotely with his brother Eli Manning. The network’s persistent courtship paid off with the debut of the popular Manningcast (technically called Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli) on ESPN2 in 2021. The brothers are now calling their fifth season of the Emmy Award-winning alt-cast. Last April, ESPN reached a long-term, multi-platform contract extension with Omaha that makes it hard to see where one company begins and the other ends. 

Then there was Fox’s whirlwind romance of Brady. To lure the newly retired quarterback into the broadcast booth, Fox offered him a record 10-year, $375 million contract in 2022. When the seven-time Super Bowl winner decided he wasn’t ready to step into the booth, Fox let him take a gap year in 2023 to study up before Brady finally debuted alongside Kevin Burkhardt for the 2024 season. Brady ended up calling the most-watched Super Bowl ever in his rookie season on TV. At $37.5 million a year, Brady makes nearly twice the salary of his contemporaries like Troy Aikman at ESPN and Tony Romo at CBS. But to parent Fox Corp., Brady is worth it since he also serves as a corporate “ambassador” and rain-maker.

The savvy executives at NBC know what they’re getting with Jordan. The GOAT is almost a recluse these days. But that gives him an air of mystery, says Sam Smith, author of “The Jordan Rules.” Unlike other NBA personalities—like Charles Barkley or Shaquille O’Neal—he’s not a ubiquitous talking head. So when Jordan speaks, people listen. His comments on load management, for example, sparked a fierce debate. NBC declined to comment.

“Because he’s been away from the game so long, there’s been a mystique that’s grown about him,” Smith told FOS. “And because he’s one of the few celebrities, to his credit, who’s really chosen to be private… this tremendous air of mystery he’s sort of created around himself has lent the public to be thrilled just to see it—it doesn’t matter what he says, so I didn’t expect much. It wasn’t much [so far], but yet it’s a big story just because he’s there. It’s something people don’t ever get to see, so they’re excited about it.”

Jordan himself alluded to myriad demands on his attention during his sitdown with Tirico. 

“The most valuable asset I have is time. That’s probably why you don’t see enough of me,” he said.

Michael Jordan could agree to two or three more interviews with NBC Sports as part of his “MJ: Insights to Excellence” series, sources tell Front Office Sports.

Ever since NBC announced His Airness would serve as a “special contributor” to its NBA coverage, the question has been how much time the busy Jordan would commit to the project. 

The Bulls legend’s first two installments—where he discussed retirement and load management—came from the same TV interview with Mike Tirico. That led to speculation the Hall of Famer did just  a single sitdown that would then be edited into multiple segments airing throughout the season.  

If all goes well, sources say Jordan could sit down with Tirico again before several vital events on NBC’s coverage calendar: the 2026 NBA All-Star Game and NBA Playoffs. 

“I don’t think it’s one sitdown—but I don’t think it’s 15 either,” says one source. 

Another source described the process as “open-ended.” If there are more interviews, they’ll be done at Jordan’s convenience. Don’t look for MJ to show up courtside at a live game wearing a head-set or in-studio a la NHL great Wayne Gretzky of TNT Sports, says one source. When NBC announced Jordan at its upfront presentation this spring, he didn’t show in person. Instead, he beamed into Radio City Music Hall via a taped appearance.

“This is all speculation and overwhelmingly inaccurate,” an NBC Sports spokesman told FOS on Monday night.

As part of its 11-year, $27 billion deal with the NBA, NBC/Peacock gets the rights to the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday nights. What better way to revive flagging interest in All-Star Weekend than to have Jordan—a 14-time All-Star—recount some of his heroics? 

After all, Jordan won the game’s MVP award three times and the Slam Dunk contest twice. Unlike many of today’s stars, the ultra-competitor treated the game like it was life or death, not a no-defense exhibition. 

If Jordan really wants to get down and dirty he could also address one of the most infamous moments in NBA All-Star history: the “freeze-out” game of 1985, where the All-Star rookie believed other NBA stars led by Isiah Thomas refused to pass him the ball. Thomas has vehemently denied it.

Meanwhile, a Jordan interview during the NBA Playoffs would be a huge feather in NBC’s cap. The network is set to air six Conference Finals over the next 11 years. Anything the six-time champion says about any player or team would be news. The amount of topics Jordan could explore from his own playoff career are too numerous to count, from dropping 63 points on Larry Bird’s Celtics in 1986 to willing the Bulls to a win over the Jazz during “Flu Game” in the 1997 Finals. Just look at the polarizing reaction to his load management criticism.

“Michael Jordan is the GOAT. Anything he says, people are going to listen,” says a source. “It’s gratifying because he’s so mysterious.”

Jordan’s dynastic Bulls won all six of their NBA titles on NBC airwaves. The previous “NBA on NBC” era from 1990 to 2002 is regarded by many as the league’s golden era. The network has been fanning the mystery around Jordan’s appearances by treating them with nuclear code-level secrecy. 

NBC’s first NBA coverage in 22 years has been drawing critical raves. The network has been praised for its “new-stalgia” approach, featuring Jordan, the Roundball Rock theme and cameos by Bob Costas. On the tech side, critics love the crisp picture quality of NBC game telecasts with Awful Announcing declaring: “A plea to all networks. Please make your picture look as good as NBC.”

Game 7 of the World Series was big on drama as the Dodgers survived the Blue Jays to become the first repeat World Series winner in 25 years—and Fox was a major beneficiary. 

The network says that according to preliminary viewership data, the Dodgers’ 5–4 win over the Blue Jays in 11 innings Saturday averaged 25.98 million viewers in the U.S. across all Fox platforms, representing the most-watched World Series game since 2017’s Game 7 won by the Astros over the Dodgers.

This is a fast-national number from Nielsen, along with data from Adobe Analytics, and is not a final figure reflecting Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel measurement process. That figure, along with audience data from Canadian broadcasters Sportsnet and TVA Sports, is expected in the coming days. 

Still, the initial viewership number from Fox reflects just how much of a draw the deciding World Series game was.

The Blue Jays were just two outs away from securing their first championship in 32 years, but a game-tying home run in the ninth inning by Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas dramatically swung the game in favor of Los Angeles, and a go-ahead home run from catcher Will Smith two innings later sealed it. 

As that unfolded, Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto returned to the mound after starting and throwing six innings in Game 6 to close out Game 7 en route to winning World Series Most Valuable Player.

“To do what we’ve done in this span of time is pretty remarkable,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, referring to the team’s back-to-back titles and three in six seasons. “I guess I’ll let the pundits and all the fans talk about if it’s a dynasty or not, but I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.”

Among the other milestones from the initial Game 7 viewership data:

• The Dodgers-Blue Jays game beat the last World Series Game 7, 2019’s clash between the Nationals and Astros, in viewership by 10%.
• The game peaked on Fox with an audience of 31.5 million, with that happening between 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m.
• The Game 7 average audience beats the draw from the deciding Game 5 in last year’s World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, another major draw among recent Fall Classics, by 40%.
• The contest’s linear audience beat Game 7 of the NBA Finals in June on ABC between the Pacers and Thunder in viewership by 53%.

Notably, this has all been achieved as this year’s World Series matchup only had one U.S. home market measured by Nielsen, leading to expected drops in American viewership during the initial five games of the series. More than countering that, however, was record-setting viewership on Canada’s Sportsnet, owned by Blue Jays parent company Rogers Communications, as the entire nation gravitated to their home team. 

Games 6 and 7, in which the Dodgers became just the ninth MLB team to win those games on the road to win the World Series, then took the audience to an entirely different level.

“This World Series really demonstrates why it’s not just spin when we (and the NBA) say length of series matters more than matchup,” tweeted Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill. “Average viewership for this series will end up pretty close to [Yankees-Dodgers] last year, but we got 60% more innings. Makes all the difference.”