Michael Jordan reportedly isn’t returning to NBC next season, and good luck blaming him for it — NBC never had a plan for him past the press release. The network spent a fortune landing the most famous athlete the sport has ever produced.
Then used him for one interview.
All season.
Back in May 2025, Jordan put out a statement about how fired up he was for NBC’s return to NBA coverage, name-checking the same network that broadcast his six championship runs with the Bulls in the 90s. It read like the start of something. It turned out to be the whole thing.
Jordan’s entire “special on-air contributor” role came down to a single sit-down with Mike Tirico, taped during Ryder Cup week last September and running about an hour and forty minutes. NBC sliced that one conversation into a handful of segments branded “MJ: Insights to Excellence” and doled them out at halftime all season — load management here, Madison Square Garden memories there, a little Olympic nostalgia for good measure. Jordan’s best material, on healthy stars sitting out games, was blunt: “I never wanted to miss a game.” NBC turned that into inventory instead of a conversation.
Tirico, to his credit, didn’t dress it up when asked directly whether the format worked. “Was it what everyone wanted? Probably not,” he said. Then the save: “Was it better than not hearing from Michael Jordan? You’re damn right it was.”
That’s the whole autopsy in two sentences.
NBC’s own lead announcer admitting the thing didn’t land, then arguing a diminished Michael Jordan still beats zero Michael Jordan. He’s not wrong about that math. He’s just describing a rounding error, not a plan for an entire NBA broadcast partnership.
Bleacher Report dropped the report Tuesday:
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/2092681817874923798
No second interview is on the books, though Tirico left the door open, calling another session “a possibility” he’d welcome. NBC’s own comment amounted to a shrug, noting Jordan could always change his mind, mercurial guy that he is. Translation: nobody planned for a second season because nobody needed one — the announcement already cashed the headline check.
Credit where it’s due, this isn’t some standalone crime against television. It’s the whole sports-media rights arms race in miniature, another network math problem hiding behind a big name. The industry keeps running the same play, paying huge money for names and then not knowing what to do with them once the contract’s signed. Jordan just happens to be the biggest name anyone’s tried it on.
The 2026-27 season tips off October 20. NBC’s plan for its Michael Jordan coverage, as of today, is identical to last year’s: hope he says yes again.
That’s not a broadcast strategy. That’s a Hail Mary with a Q rating attached.
