{"id":242498,"date":"2025-10-22T02:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242498\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T02:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:52:07","slug":"michael-jordan-is-going-to-be-part-of-nbcs-nba-coverage-his-reason-to-give-back-to-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242498\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan is going to be part of NBC\u2019s NBA coverage. His reason: to give back to the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n


\n FILE – Team owner Michael Jordan looks on during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Aug. 31, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo\/Matt Kelley, File)(AP\/Matt Kelley)<\/p>\n


\n FILE – Team owner Michael Jordan looks on during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Aug. 31, 2025, in Darlington, S.C. (AP Photo\/Matt Kelley, File)(AP\/Matt Kelley)<\/p>\n

Michael Jordan made his debut as a special contributor to NBC Sports\u2019 return to NBA broadcasting on Tuesday night, saying he\u2019s doing so as a way to give back to basketball.<\/p>\n

Jordan, speaking to NBC play-by-play voice Mike Tirico in the first installment of a series the network is calling \u201cMJ: Insights to Excellence,\u201d said he makes a conscious decision to prioritize time with family over being seen more in the public basketball eye.<\/p>\n

That said, he also acknowledged a desire to \u201cpay it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have an obligation to the game of basketball \u2026 as a basketball player is to be able to pass on messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball,\u201d Jordan said during a segment at halftime of the season-opening game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s presence was part of a night where NBC \u2014 back in the NBA broadcasting game for the first time in more than 20 years \u2014 delicately blended both the present with the past. The opening intro<\/a> included some players from this era asked their memories of when the game was on NBC, and of course, many of them didn\u2019t have any memories since they either weren\u2019t born yet or were very young.<\/p>\n

John Tesh\u2019s famed \u201cRoundball Rock\u201d \u2014 the soundtrack that was NBC\u2019s NBA theme music through 2002 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Jordan starred on plenty of those games. Now, he\u2019ll talk during some.<\/p>\n

At 62, Jordan \u2014 a six-time NBA champion, a Hall of Famer, arguably the greatest player ever \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Jordan got nervous \u2014 more nervous, he said, than he had been \u201cin years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason being is those kids heard the stories from the parents about what I did 30 years ago,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cSo, their expectation is 30 years prior, and I haven\u2019t touched a basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you swished it,\u201d Tirico said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Jordan replied. \u201cThat made my whole week.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBC said the next installment of Jordan\u2019s conversation with Tirico would air on Oct. 28, and that one of the next topics covered would be load management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could take a magic pill, put on shorts and go out and play the game of basketball today because that\u2019s who I am,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cThat 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\u2019s better for me to be sitting here talking to you as opposed to popping my Achilles and I\u2019m in a wheelchair for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan made his debut as a special contributor to NBC Sports’ return to NBA broadcasting on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-242498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}