Mike Tirico Gets Candid On Controversial Michael Jordan Interview For NBC

During his illustrious NBA career, Michael Jordan made it a habit to defy expectations with his hang-time moves and crunch-time shots. At this time, though, hoops lovers around the world are bemoaning how MJ did not meet expectations as a “special contributor” to NBC.

While many fans were curious to hear Jordan’s thoughts on the action unfolding in the 2025–26 season, his “Insights to Excellence” segments on NBC ended up being drawn from a single interview that lasted one hour and 45 minutes. The clincher: Jordan was paid an eye-popping $20 million for that interview alone.

Mike Tirico, the veteran broadcaster who conducted the interview with Jordan, admitted that these circumstances have not exactly been satisfying to viewers. In the same breath, however, Tirico expressed gratitude for getting some elusive Jordan sound bites in the first place.

“Was it what everyone wanted? Probably not,” Tirico said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “Was it better than not hearing from Michael Jordan? You’re damn right it was. And if we get another shot at it, will I be more than excited to be part of it? You betcha.”

From the standpoint of an NBA media distributor, NBC can hardly be blamed for using Jordan’s name to hype up their coverage of this season. With the NBA’s new media rights deal kicking in, three entities were competing to draw the most eyeballs: The Walt Disney Company (via ESPN and Disney+), NBCUniversal (via NBC and Peacock), and Amazon Prime Video (via Prime Video).

During the offseason, it wasn’t just NBA teams that were loading up their rosters. The NBA’s media partners were also grappling to secure the biggest names among commentators and analysts. Among the three entities, only NBC could claim that it secured airtime with Jordan, widely considered to be the greatest NBA player of all time.

However, the actual “Insights to Excellence” output did not seem to meet the hype, as Jordan spoke in broad strokes about things like his love for the game and the state of athlete marketing. While Disney and Prime (and even NBC itself) had personalities like Isiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade, and Tim Legler dishing out fresh takes on the ongoing NBA action, Jordan’s segments drew from the same sit-down interview over and over again.

If Tirico gets a chance to solicit more insights from Jordan, that would be some sort of win for NBC. Still, it appears that the damage from unmet expectations (not to mention a hefty $20 million bill) has been done.