When NBCUniversal made the announcement yesterday that Michael Jordan would be joining the network for the re-launch of the NBA on NBC, there weren’t any details to come along with exactly what the NBA great would be doing in his role with the company. Since then, speculation has been running rampant on sports radio and social media following the announcement, including from Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. He was asked during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday what he would expect the Hall of Fame basketball legend to do with NBC Sports.
“I don’t think Michael is going to be there every Saturday or Sunday afternoon breaking down a regular season game up against football,” said Russo. “I think it’s a little PR oriented, because I got to see how much Jordan’s going to work.”
Beginning this fall, NBC Sports will mark Jordan’s first venture in his post-NBA career into the sports media landscape. While he was known for not sharing much opinion on the game of basketball and the players in it during his playing days, Russo said he doesn’t feel Jordan will provide much criticism of today’s game and players either.
“I don’t see Jordan breaking down an individual game and getting on a player for making a mistake,” noted Russo. “I think people will pay attention to it. Jordan doesn’t talk much. You very rarely seen him after that great documentary. So, from that standpoint, we’ll hear from him, and we’ll go from there.”
Moreover, Jordan, who played several marquee games throughout his legendary career on the broadcast property, will be making contributions to the property across NBC and Peacock. The network, which broadcast NBA games from 1990 to 2002, signed an 11-year agreement with the NBA to return to broadcasting games beginning next season.
Furthermore, Russo told Dan Patrick he feels the announcement was simply for some sizzle, and he believes there are probably no details worked out yet between NBC and Jordan specifically.
“To me, that’s just NBC trying to get a little juice with their NBA deal. Let’s announce that we’ve hired Jordan for ‘a special correspondent,’” said Russo. “They probably haven’t even detailed what that might entail. They just said, Jordan, why you sign up, and we’ll figure it out later on.”
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