Michael Jordan made his debut as a special contributor to NBC Sports’ return to NBA broadcasting on Tuesday night, saying he’s doing so as a way to give back to basketball.
Jordan, speaking to NBC play-by-play voice Mike Tirico in the first installment of a series the network is calling “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” said he makes a conscious decision to prioritize time with family over being seen more in the public basketball eye.
That said, he also acknowledged a desire to “pay it forward.”
“I have an obligation to the game of basketball … as a basketball player is to be able to pass on messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball,” Jordan said during a segment at halftime of the season-opening game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.
Jordan’s presence was part of a night where NBC — back in the NBA broadcasting game for the first time in more than 20 years — delicately blended both the present with the past. The opening intro included some players from this era asked their memories of when the game was on NBC, and of course, many of them didn’t have any memories since they either weren’t born yet or were very young.
John Tesh’s famed “Roundball Rock” — the soundtrack that was NBC’s NBA theme music through 2002 — was back, and with some help from artificial intelligence, so was the voice of the late Jim Fagan, a longtime NBC Sports narrator who was part of those NBA broadcasts a generation ago.
Jordan starred on plenty of those games. Now, he’ll talk during some.
At 62, Jordan — a six-time NBA champion, a Hall of Famer, arguably the greatest player ever — said the competitive fire that he was famous for still burns, but he rarely touches a basketball anymore. He rented a home when he was watching the Ryder Cup and the owner, whose grandchildren were there, got Jordan to agree to some photos and asked him to shoot one free throw on the court that was on the property.
Jordan got nervous — more nervous, he said, than he had been “in years.”
“The reason being is those kids heard the stories from the parents about what I did 30 years ago,” Jordan said. “So, their expectation is 30 years prior, and I haven’t touched a basketball.”
“I hope you swished it,” Tirico said.
“Absolutely,” Jordan replied. “That made my whole week.”
NBC said the next installment of Jordan’s conversation with Tirico would air on Oct. 28, and that one of the next topics covered would be load management.
“I wish I could take a magic pill, put on shorts and go out and play the game of basketball today because that’s who I am,” Jordan said. “That type of competition, that type of competitiveness is what I live for, and I miss it. I miss that aspect of playing the game of basketball, being able to challenge myself against what people see as great basketball. But it’s better for me to be sitting here talking to you as opposed to popping my Achilles and I’m in a wheelchair for a while.”