Michael Jordan on NBC on NBC Photo credit: NBA on NBC
By Sam Neumann on

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One interview with Michael Jordan was enough to leave a mark on Mike Tirico.

The voice of NBC’s NFL and NBA coverage discussed the interview, which became the entirety of Jordan’s contribution to the network’s NBA coverage last season, in a conversation with Front Office Sports Tonight’s Bridget Condon.

“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,” Tirico said. “It was just Michael talking about basketball. And Michael was terrific about it, too.”

That single sit-down carried a lot more weight than either side probably intended. NBC had unveiled Jordan as a “special contributor” to its NBA coverage at its Upfronts presentation, and the vague title left plenty of room for fans to imagine a season’s worth of appearances from a player who’s rarely spoken publicly about the league since retiring in 2003.

Instead, they got one interview, recorded months in advance, sliced into segments and aired at intervals throughout the year. NBC talent hyped Jordan’s involvement before the season began, and the gap between that hype and what actually materialized turned his NBA on NBC tenure into what Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder called one of the biggest letdowns in recent sports media history.

Jordan, notably, showed up far more often on Fox’s NASCAR coverage discussing his 23XI Racing team than he did talking basketball for the network paying him to be a “special contributor.”

Tirico, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“Michael hasn’t sat down with a lot of folks over the last 20 years, and I’m honored that we did it,” he said. “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.”

A second interview doesn’t appear imminent. Front Office Sports reported last month that Jordan is “not expected” to return to NBC’s NBA coverage at all this season, closing the door, at least for now, on a role that generated more disappointment than basketball insight.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann