Michael Jordan is more likely to be like Tom Brady than Charles Barkley on NBC

USA Today

12-05-2025

Michael Jordan is more likely to be like Tom Brady than Charles Barkley on NBC
One of the worst trappings of our culture is nostalgia, and how we ceaselessly appeal to it.
Nostalgia is how real cultural growth never happens. Nostalgia is how we get stuck in the "good old days" of an interest without ever looking in the front view mirror. Nostalgia is how Disney initially tries some radical ideas in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, only to resurrect Emperor Palpatine (?) as a central piece of its nonsensical plot line with no shame in one of the biggest cinematic messes of all time.
Enter NBC and its nostalgia-heavy plan for its upcoming NBA coverage, with the arguable G.O.A.T., Michael Jordan, now at the forefront. On Monday, the network announced that the six-time NBA champion, six-time NBA Finals MVP, and five-time MVP will be a "special contributor" when TV's most famous peacock restarts its once-legendary NBA broadcast coverage this coming fall.
My pal Michael Sykes is understandably very excited about Jordan joining the live NBA television fray.
Personally, I don't know that I can echo these reasonable sentiments that I imagine many other people are also considering about Jordan on NBC:
Could Jordan host an alt-cast similar to ESPN's Manning cast? Just picture it: Michael Jordan shooting the breeze with the stars of today's game while watching hoops. That would be incredible. Can you imagine MJ chatting it up with Anthony Edwards? He'd probably just tell him his Adidas are trash and that he needs to switch companies ASAP.
An MJ betting segment would be kind of wild considering the (debunked!) history there, but I can definitely see it happening. That might be fun.
You know what else would be fun? A Charles Barkley link-up. This won't happen — Barkley will still be with the NBA on TNT crew next season. But (if they're friends again!) a Michael Jordan-Charles Barkley segment would feed families for generations.
Let's really think about this for a second.
Outside of his fiery Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech and the sublime perfection of The Last Dance, has Jordan ever been known to be controversial?
Jordan has been in the public eye for over four decades. As a public figure, not a competitive basketball player, you can count on one hand the number of times he's said something that pushed any boundary, any at all. He has no meaningful social media presence (which is not necessarily a bad thing, mental health-wise, but is notable when many other legends do). He has seldom appeared on live television connected to the NBA. This is the same man who, of course, declined to directly involve himself in a Senate race in his native North Carolina because "Republicans buy sneakers, too."
Ever since he became one of the most famous people on the planet, everything about Jordan's personal brand has been meticulously curated and finely combed. He does not and has not "stepped out of line" for a good reason. He's relentlessly protected his bottom line, and I don't blame him for that, but still.
In other words: all-time greats like Jordan do not color outside the lines because they have calculated that they have a lot more to lose by doing so than their less-accomplished peers. Full stop.
To be fair, we don't yet know exactly how Jordan will contribute to the new NBA on NBC.
So, could I see Jordan showing more personality on live television (assuming he's not sending in pre-taped segments)? Perhaps. It'd be fun to see an icon like him let loose in the unfiltered chaos of 2025 sports media.
But it does not feel likely. At all.
I understand NBC is appealing to what some feel is the golden era of the NBA by bringing in the basketball superstar who became synonymous with its broadcasts. I know the network feels like Jordan is another huge draw in bringing back older hoops fans who have soured on the modern league lately (in good and bad faith, however). I would urge NBC to lean much more into earnestly selling the current generation of special hoopers like Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić, and Victor Wembanyama because that is more sustainable long-term, but that's just me.
That's because Jordan won't be doing the equivalent of "The Shrug" on live television again. We won't be getting something like "The Flu Game" or the "Double Nickel" with Marv Albert squealing in delight in the background. Jordan's iconic stature will always rest on his tremendous, memorable basketball accomplishments, not the mild-mannered public person he has routinely projected off the court.
It's fun to dream about the loads of fun Jordan might have on NBC during the next NBA season. But that thought process is not grounded in reality.