Michael Jordan will play an exciting new role for NBC’s NBA coverage next season, the network has announced.
As part of the league’s new media rights deal, NBA games will be broadcast on NBC once again starting in the fall – just as was the case during Jordan’s reign with the Bulls.
And it’s now been announced that Jordan will serve as a ‘special contributor’ for NBA coverage on NBC and Peacock.
The NBA on NBC and Peacock X account accompanied the news with a highlight reel of Jordan, who of course won six championships and five MVPs in a glittering career for the Bulls.
The announcement comes after the network said it would also be adding Carmelo Anthony, Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford to its coverage.
Jordan has remained mostly out of the spotlight since retiring from the NBA for good in 2003.
Michael Jordan will be a ‘special contributor’ to NBC’s NBA coverage next season
Jordan is revered for his career with the Bulls but has stayed out of the spotlight since retiring
He has never coached a team or held an on-air role before, though he was the owner of the Hornets for 13 years before selling his majority stake in 2023.
NBC and Peacock will air up to 100 regular season games total per season, with more than half of those on NBC, the NBA previously said.
As part of the new 11-year agreement, ESPN will remain a rights-holder while Amazon has gained NBA broadcast rights for the first time.
NBC last held broadcast rights for the NBA more than 20 years ago, in 2002.
Nonetheless, the network’s relationship to the NBA is viewed through a nostalgic lens by many basketball fans, due to the presence of Jordan and other 90’s stars on its airwaves back in the day, and its hit intro song ‘Roundball Rock.’
The usually private Jordan is not the first ‘GOAT’ of a sport to take up an on-air role.
Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is an analyst for TNT, while Tom Brady started his job as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports last year.
Jordan was thrust back into the spotlight amid the 2020 release of ‘The Last Dance,’ an in-depth docuseries focused on the Bulls’ championship runs featuring him and many of his teammates.
Notably, Jordan had control of the archival footage used in the project, and many of his teammates – including Scottie Pippen – were unhappy with how things were portrayed in the project.
More to follow
