Michael Jordan made his debut as a special commentator for NBC Sports' return to NBA broadcasts Tuesday night, saying he was doing it to give back to basketball.
Jordan, speaking with NBC voice Mike Tirico in the first part of a series the network is calling “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” said he is making a conscious decision to prioritize time with family over being seen more in the eyes of the basketball public.
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However, he also acknowledged a desire to “pay it forward.”
“I have a commitment to the game of basketball … because a basketball player should be able to convey messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball,” Jordan said during halftime of the season-opening game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.
Jordan's presence was part of an evening in which NBC – returning to broadcast the NBA for the first time in more than 20 years – delicately mixed the present and the past. Opening introduction some players of that era were asked for their memories of when the game aired on NBC, and of course many of them had no memories, as they were either not born yet or were very young.
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John Tesh's iconic “Roundball Rock”—the soundtrack that was NBC's NBA theme song until 2002—is back, and with some help artificial intelligenceas is the voice of the late Jim Fagan, the longtime NBC Sports anchor who contributed to those NBA broadcasts a generation ago.
Jordan starred in many of these games. Now he will speak during some.
At 62, Jordan — a six-time NBA champion, a Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest player of all time — said the competitive fire for which he was famous still burns, but he rarely touches a basketball anymore. He rented a house while 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.
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Jordan became nervous—more nervous, he said, than he had been “in years.”
“The reason is these kids heard their parents' stories about what I did 30 years ago,” Jordan said. “So their expectations were 30 years ago, and I hadn’t touched a basketball yet.”
“I hope you did,” Tirico said.
“Absolutely,” Jordan replied. “It took up my whole week.”
NBC said the next part of Jordan's conversation with Tirico will air on Oct. 28, and that one of the next topics discussed will be workload management.
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“I wish I could take a magic pill and put on shorts and go play basketball today because that’s who I am,” Jordan said. “That type of competition, that type of competition, that's what I live for, and I miss it. I miss that aspect of playing basketball, being able to challenge myself against what people think is great basketball. But for me, it's better to sit here and talk to you than to not pop my Achilles and be in a wheelchair for a while.”
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NBA AP: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
