Michael Jordan's first NBA on NBC appearance had been advertised for months. By the time it actually aired — a single Mike Tirico sit-down at his house, sliced into bite-sized segments stretching across the season — the No Dunks crew did not know whether to celebrate or to file a complaint. They settled for both.
The pull, they all agreed, was undeniable from the moment the segment opened.
"It's just great to have this guy back in our lives. I would watch him say anything," host TK said. "He told a story about a rich guy paying him to shoot a free throw, and I was on the edge of my seat hanging on every word when he said absolutely. It felt like Championship 7 for the Chicago Bulls."
His co-host went a step further on the question of presence and refused to entertain the idea that any other figure in basketball could carry a clip the way Jordan still does.
"There's aura, and then there's Michael Jordan. Nobody is on his level," he said.
What the panel could not get past was the format. The whole NBC strategy, by the hosts' read, hangs on a single afternoon at Jordan's home — a long Tirico interview that producers will chop into teaser-sized clips and drip-feed for months on end.
"And him giving back to the league is doing one interview with Mike Tirico that they're going to chop up into a million segments at his house, by the way. So that's funny," the host said. "It's impossible to take your eyes or tune them out at all when he is talking."
The punchline came right after. The hosts assumed Tirico had hours of usable footage and that NBC was sitting on a treasure trove of MJ on every modern topic basketball has to offer.
"I assume he sat down with Trico in his house. They talked for two hours," the host said. "They've got things that Tariq brought up. Load management. How the game is different. How would you play or fare in today's game? Who's your favorite? I assume there's all these and they're just going to chop it up."
Not every panellist was sold. The first instalment, focused on the playful free-throw story, struck one host as undercooked.
"Obviously, he's spectacular and it's captivating. Yeah, but the story was just okay. There wasn't a breakdown of any play or whatever," he said. "Not that he needs to do that, but just something — other than hitting a free throw at his age. He can still do it."
Where the No Dunks roundtable really came alive was on what NBC could be doing with him and whether it was their job to do anything else. The hosts walked through a fantasy version of the segment in which a contemporary moment lights up the basketball internet — Jokic dropping a triple-double, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander going for 60, Luka Doncic posting a video-game line — and Jordan reacts the next morning.
"What happens when, I don't know, Jokic, SGA, Luka, whoever, some guy goes for like 60, 40, 30 like the night before or the game before, and it's like you would want to get Jordan's reaction to that," one host said. "But then it's a clip from two months ago and that's just so weird."
Another host pushed back, arguing that asking Jordan to micro-react to current games has never been MJ's lane and never will be.
"Well, I don't care if he talks about a current play or game. I think that's asking a little bit much of MJ. I don't think he wants to do that. Clearly, he doesn't want to do that. He just wants to do what he wants to do," he said.
The one preview the panel did get came from NBC itself. The next instalment, by the network's own tease, would target one of the loudest debates in basketball — and the host whose opinion it would be most worth hearing on.
"They tease next week, it's load management," the host said. "He's going to talk about how he felt like it was his duty to play all 82 games. We've heard this before. He's going to talk about that. But I'm interested to see if he criticizes any of the current players on how they approach a regular season."
The production team's gamble — that the most powerful currency in basketball broadcasting is still Michael Jordan's voice, even ten months at a time — was at least partly working. The No Dunks roundtable spent the better part of an hour debating it. As one of the hosts put it, summarising the entire night: "It felt like a finals game. They pulled out all the stops. The intros are going to stay. I hope they do."
