Michael Jordan’s brief run as a broadcaster for NBC Sports has ended after just one season, and the network’s lead NBA voice says the Hall of Famer simply doesn’t want the job that comes with it.
Jordan joined NBC Sports for the 2025-26 NBA season as a “special on-air contributor,” but the arrangement produced only a single sit-down interview with play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico. That conversation, titled “MJ: Insights To Excellence,” was cut into five segments of roughly three to four minutes each and aired across the season. An August report from Front Office Sports indicated Jordan was not expected to return.
Speaking Tuesday at Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” summit in New York, Tirico addressed the arrangement directly, saying Jordan’s long absence from television wasn’t an accident.
“I think Michael Jordan hadn’t been on TV for a long time for a reason,” Tirico said. “He likes being Michael Jordan. There’s an aura, even still, when he’s on camera, there’s an aura about Michael Jordan that is just different.”
Tirico said the format of their conversation reflected where Jordan is at this stage of his life, rather than a desire to engage in the daily churn of sports commentary.
“Sitting across from him, it’s just a different feel. And I think he is above the day-to-day conversation of ‘Hey, who’s the best point guard in the NBA right now? And who’s best this or the best that?’ So I think in a controlled setting, talking about topics that he’s still passionate about with the sport, he loved it,” Tirico said.
Some viewers found the single, segmented interview underwhelming given the attention that greeted Jordan’s hiring. Tirico pushed back on that criticism.
“I love the fact that we did one interview and you can say what you want about it airing once or being spread out over our series of pregame shows during the year,” Tirico said. “It’s a year later and people are still talking about it and people are still asking about it, which is to me, all the reason that it was completely worth it.”
Tirico added that the time with Jordan was personally memorable, even if it didn’t lead to a bigger role.
“It was damn cool to hang with MJ and talk basketball and talk business and golf and all that other stuff. I don’t think he wants to be — if he wanted to be, we would all run to have him on every single day, but that’s just not what he wants to do, I think at this point in his career in life,” Tirico said.
Jordan, a six-time NBA champion, remains involved in sports beyond broadcasting. He co-owns NASCAR Cup Series team 23XI Racing alongside driver Denny Hamlin.
