The NBA world has known for some time that Michael Jordan is making a return to the league as a ‘special contributor’. But there were several speculations around what his role actually means, since special contributor sounds fairly vague as an occupation.
In a preview of the show before Sunday Night Football on NBC, it has now been confirmed that his segment on NBC will be named ‘Insights to Excellence’ and will debut on opening night at halftime when the Houston Rockets face the defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
An NBA on NBC promo on SNF, including a look at Mike Tirico interviewing Michael Jordan. 🏈🏀📺🎙️ #NFL #NBA #SNF pic.twitter.com/Y9jA179Rnu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 20, 2025
NBA fans saw this news on social media and could not resist their emotions to respond to the update. While a few were excited about hearing Michael Jordan speak about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Durant while also talking about their teams on opening night, other fans were also facing mixed emotions over what the segment could have been like and seeing a personality like Jordan doing the NBA’s coverage.
“He’s about to call them all trash 🤣”
“I guarantee he’ll have bloodshot eyes and say many ‘kids these days’ quotes.”
“This is gonna be insane, I won’t watch a lick of the games, but I’ll tune into anything with MJ.”
“We know that he will speak a lot against LeBron James; his shoes are in danger if he does not remain the number 1 of all time.”
“He needs to have his cigar and vodka for the show to reach his potential.”
“No drink in hand or cigar? Idk if it will reach its potential now.”
“Halftime ratings will be higher than the game.”
“Bro is finally coming out of his cave.”
While the debut date has been revealed and it is claimed that his segment will run throughout the season, it is still unclear how often Jordan will be doing his segment throughout the year and if there are any additional elements to the segment, like if Jordan would ever converse live with a player or provide details of that nature.
What To Expect From The Michael Jordan Segment On NBC
Several analysts spent months trying to figure out what type of role Jordan will be playing in his capacity for NBC’s NBA coverage and came up with some absurd predictions. But now we have more clarity.
According to an insider from NBC, Cris Collinsworth, the segment is aimed to be a “deep dive into the brain of Michael Jordan.”
“The things that you would really want to know from Michael Jordan, if you got a chance to sit down and just have a conversation with him, no cameras, just a couple glasses of wine and a great talk about all the things you thought you knew about him from watching The Last Dance, you’re gonna get that,” Collinsworth said.
“Plus, you’re gonna get a very focused version of Michael. Not, you know, ‘Michael, who do you think the best player in the NBA is?’ It’s not that stuff. It’s details, way inside the brain of the greatest basketball player that ever lived.”
The NBA world is fired up to see Jordan on their TV screens regularly after so many decades. It will be interesting to see how Jordan reacts to iconic veterans like LeBron James and Stephen Curry as well in the future, and what his take has been on the evolution of the league.
