Ever since NBC announced Michael Jordan would be part of the network’s return to broadcasting the NBA, fans have wondered what type of role he will fill.
Tuesday night the network finally let it be known as the league tipped off its 80th season.
Jordan sat down with host Mike Tirico for what apparently will be a weekly segment called, “Insights to Excellence.”
‘Pay It Forward’
The first installment of “Insights to Excellence” aired on broadcast during halftime of the Houston Rockets game at the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jordan, who got emotional toward the end of the segment, said he wants to pay it forward to the game of basketball.
“I have an obligation to the game of basketball. Not financially. I’m OK,” he said. “I mean more or less for me as a basketball player it’s to be able to pass on messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball,” Jordan told Tirico, who then asked if he still loves the game.
“Love it like you wouldn’t believe,” Jordan replied. “Honestly 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. That type of competition 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 being in a wheel chair for a while.”
The Greatest of All Time
Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, the team that drafted him in 1984.
He was named Most Valuable Player of all six of those finals victories (1991-93 and ’96-98), and he led the NBA in scoring 10 times.
Jordan also made the all-defensive first team nine times and won two Olympic gold medals along with many other honors and accomplishments.
He is still the NBA’s all-time leader in scoring average at 30.1 points per game and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
All that said, Jordan being part of NBC broadcasts just seems right.
He was at the top of his game in the 1990s when the network was the league’s primary media partner, so NBC aired all of Jordan’s NBA Finals victories with the Bulls.
He retired briefly and played minor league baseball in 1994 but returned to the NBA in the spring of ’95.
Jordan retired again after the 1998 season but returned to play two more seasons for the Washington Wizards from 2001-03.
The NBA left NBC for ABC/ESPN after the 2002 season, but the network is back as a partner with the league beginning this season after out-bidding Turner Sports for the package it had maintained for decades on cable.
Out of Practice?
Jordan also shared with Tirico he has not picked up a basketball “in years,” though he admitted shooting a free throw to please the owner of a house he stayed in during the Ryder Cup recently.
It was for an audience of just the owner’s grandkids, but Jordan claimed it had him spooked.
“That was the most nervous I’ve been in years,” he said. “The reason being that those kids heard the stories from their parents about what I did 30 years ago.”
“I hope you swished it,”Tirico said.
“Absolutely,” Jordan replied. “I got the most gratifying — that made my whole week that I was able to please that kid, not knowing if I could.”
