Bob Costas Gives Thoughts On Michael Jordan’s NBC Involvement

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan has re-entered the NBA landscape. Jordan will be involved with NBC’s NBA coverage during the 2025-26 season as a “special contributor”, with his contributions thus far arriving in the form of a sit-down interview with Mike Tirico, segments of which will be aired throughout the season during NBC broadcasts.

The collection of interview segments, entitled “MJ: Insights to Excellence”, debuted on Tuesday, October 21, during halftime of the Oklahoma City Thunder-Houston Rockets NBA season opener.

In the first episode of the series, Jordan shared some personal anecdotes in his typical authentic fashion.

Not surprisingly, everyone in the sports world had a strong reaction to MJ’s re-emergence. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas spoke about Jordan’s work with NBC on a new episode of Foul Territory.

“How cool is it that (Jordan is) going to be on TV telling … his mindset?” host
A. J. Pierzynski said to Costas.

“It’s really cool,” Costas said.

“I think the way they’re gonna use him … is the smart way to use him. Mike Tirico went down to Florida and interviewed him for like two hours, and they’ll release a lot of that in little three- and four-minute chunks, like they did on the first game on Tuesday night.”

“What you want him for is historical overview,” Costas continued. “You don’t want him to break down the first half (of games). Someone else can do that at halftime, but you want his view on how the game has changed.”

“You want to pose this kind of question to him … ‘If the Bulls at their peak play the Warriors at their peak, who guards Curry and who guards you?’ Then you move to the edge of your seat to hear Jordan’s answer.”

“You don’t want to waste Michael Jordan’s time by saying, ‘the Celtics had a cold shooting first half. What should they do in the second half?’ There’s a zillion guys who can analyze that. You want the stories and the insight from a big-picture perspective from Michael Jordan.”

Costas became synonymous with Jordan’s NBA dominance in the 1990s. Costas announced the NBA Finals on NBC during this period and was thus the de facto narrator for Jordan’s Bulls dynasty.