Michael Jordan is making a surprising move to broadcast media, but it does not sound like the gig will be a full-time one.
The big news broke earlier this week that the retired basketball icon Jordan is set to join NBC’s coverage of the NBA later this year. The announcement comes as the network is slated to regain the broadcast rights to the NBA beginning with the 2025-26 season.
NBC’s post about the news simply stated that Jordan will be serving as a “special contributor” for the main NBC network as well as for Peacock. But John Ourand of Puck shared some additional details about Jordan’s new gig in his newsletter on Tuesday.
Ourand says not to expect Jordan to be in the studio every single week. Additionally, Ourand notes that Jon Miller, NBC’s president of acquisitions and partnerships, worked on the deal with Jordan for months (as the two men have a longstanding relationship dating back to Jordan’s playing days).
The 10-time NBA scoring champion Jordan is now 62 years old and has largely kept a low profile ever since retiring for good as a player in 2003. While he still has his ubiquitous endorsement presence and has rattled off some other big-time business ventures over the years (including serving as majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets from 2010-23 and partnering with ESPN for the critically-acclaimed 2020 docuseries “The Last Dance”), Jordan has mostly eschewed analyst work, unlikely many other retired former players.
But that is set to change later this year with Jordan’s special contributor role for NBC. Though it sounds like more of a sporadic gig than anything, Jordan is perhaps the single biggest get for an NBC lineup that will already feature several other former NBA superstars in their coverage.
