Michael Jordan was central to NBC’s season-opening NBA coverage. Sean Gardner / Getty Images
By D. Shanoff, A. Marchand and R. Deitsch
Oct. 22, 2025Updated 1:23 pm EDT
Michael Jordan made his much-anticipated debut as a “special correspondent” for NBC’s NBA coverage, part of the company’s new 12-year, $27 billion TV deal with the league.
As Richard Deitsch noted in his review of NBC’s opening night broadcast, “there’s value in being in the Michael Jordan business for any media company.”
Jordan was the featured participant during halftime of the season-opening game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets. The pretaped segment was called “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” and it featured Jordan being interviewed by NBC’s Mike Tirico.
What will NBC’s future with Michael Jordan look like? Here’s what we’re hearing:
• NBC has been tight-lipped about Jordan’s role, in part to build drama leading up to last night’s debut. But, as Andrew Marchand notes, “I think it’s a little ‘playing it by ear’ as it is up to MJ how much he wants to do.”
• Per Marchand, the plan is to “sprinkle clips” from Tirico’s interview with Jordan throughout the season.
• Given Jordan’s reluctance to do too much, Marchand also said that the fact that Jordan wasn’t at NBC Sports’ “upfront” presentation when the network made the announcement that he would be a special correspondent and that he wasn’t in OKC on opening night would indicate that it may not be that much more.
As Deitsch noted in his review of Jordan’s halftime segment: “One hopeful thought is that, at some point, Jordan will offer opinions on the state of the game and the players playing it. Because that could really be interesting.”
Oct 23, 2025
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