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Mike Tirico publicly confirmed Front Office Sports’s report that Michael Jordan is not expected to return to NBC’s basketball coverage this season. But the face and voice of NBC Sports hopes Air Jordan changes his mind and returns as a “special contributor” to the network’s NBA coverage.
Expectations were high when NBC announced the six-time NBA champion would join its coverage before the 2025–26 season. But Jordan apparently only filmed one extended sit-down interview with Tirico, which NBC sliced and diced into half a dozen “MJ: Insights to Excellence” segments that aired throughout the season.
“It was fun. A lot of people took it and ran with what they thought it was going to be, when we never really said a lot of what it was going to be. It was just Michael talking about basketball. And Michael was terrific about it, too,” Tirico told Front Office Sports Tonight’s Bridget Condon. “You know, I’d love for Michael at any point to come back and sit down and do more. Because it was selfishly great to sit and hang with Michael and to talk basketball and hear his views on the game and his love still for basketball and what it is today.”
Look, it was still great to hear from the reclusive Jordan. Unfortunately, MJ didn’t have much to say about the performance of current players or an amazing NBA playoffs that resulted in the Knicks capturing their first title in 53 years. The bottom line: Jordan left viewers wanting more.
But the ball was always in his court, not NBC. As Tirico pointed out, NBC was really the first media outfit to get Jordan to talk basketball at all since ESPN’s landmark docuseries, The Last Dance, aired during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“Michael hasn’t sat down with a lot of folks over the last 20 years, and I’m honored that we did it,” Tirico notes. “And I think if people look at the content of what was there, and not what their expectations were or the other stuff, I think they’d come away and say, ‘You know, it’s pretty interesting to hear what he said.’ So glad Michael did it. Lucky to have the time around him. And if he ever does it again, I hope I’m the guy on the other side of the couch. If not, I’ll be sitting there and listening to him, that’s for darn sure.”
Still, NBC can’t complain. It was a coup for the broadcast network to land Jordan rather than lose him to rival ESPN or Amazon Prime Video. Plus, NBC was widely praised for its “New-stalgia” coverage of the NBA during its first season as a league rightsholder since 2002, which included the return of broadcast icons such as Bob Costas and composer John Tesh’s driving “Roundball Rock” theme.
NBC and Peacock will tip off the new 2026-27 NBA season on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with a tripleheader featuring Celtics-Pistons at 3 p.m. ET; Knicks-76ers at 7 p.m. ET; and Spurs-Thunder at 9:30 p.m. ET. The NBA champion Knicks will get their rings, and raise their new championship banner, during a pregame Opening Night ceremony.
