Michael Jordan: NBA broadcasting is a way to give back to the game

Michael Jordan debuted as a special contributor to NBC Sports’ return to NBA broadcasts Tuesday night, saying he was doing it to give back to the game of basketball.

Jordan, speaking to NBC play-by-play voice Mike Tirico in the first installment of a series the network calls “MJ: Insights to Excellence,” said he was making a conscious decision to prioritize family time over being seen more in the public eye.

That said, he also acknowledged his desire to “pay it forward.”

“I have an obligation to the game of basketball…as a basketball player, it’s to be able to convey messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball,” Jordan said during a halftime segment of the season opener between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets.

Jordan’s presence was part of an evening in which NBC — returning to broadcast NBA games for the first time in more than 20 years — delicately blended the present with the past. In the opening intro, some players from that era were asked for their memories of when the game was on NBC, and sure enough, many of them didn’t have any because either they weren’t born yet or they were very young.

John Tesh’s famous “Roundball Rock” — the soundtrack that was the NBA’s theme song on NBC until 2002 — was back. And with the help of 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.

Jordan played in a lot of those games. Now he’s going to talk for a while.

At 62, Jordan — a six-time NBA champion, Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest player of all time — said the competitive fire he was famous for still burns but he rarely touches a basketball. He rented a house while watching the Ryder Cup and the owner, whose grandchildren were there, asked Jordan to accept some photos and asked him to shoot a free throw on the court that was on the property.

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 go back 30 years and I haven’t touched a basketball.”

“I hope you did,” Tirico said.

“Absolutely,” Jordan replied. “That made my whole week.”

NBC said the next episode of Jordan’s conversation with Tirico would air on Oct. 28 and one of the next topics discussed would be load management.

“I wish I could take a magic pill, put on some shorts and go out and play basketball today because that’s who I am,” Jordan said. “That type of competition, that type of competitiveness is what I live for, and I miss it. I miss that aspect of basketball, being able to challenge myself against what people consider great basketball. But it’s better for me to be sitting here talking to you than to blow my Achilles tendon and I’m in a wheelchair for a while.”