Bob Costas sheds light on Michael Jordan's role on NBC's NBA coverage: 'He'll be as good as he wants to be'

As the NBA makes its return to NBC, “His Airness” is taking center stage. Michael Jordan is part of the network’s coverage as a “special contributor,” and he’ll be doing an interview with Mike Tirico during Tuesday night’s tip-off.

However, there are still questions about what exactly Jordan will be doing for the network. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas shed light on what Jordan’s role could look like.

Costas noted what Jordan means to NBC’s programming as the network gets the NBA back after two decades. But based on his candor during The Last Dance documentary, Costas thinks the all-time great could thrive even though he won’t be working every game for NBC.

“I’m not 100% sure what NBC’s overall plan is for using him,” Costas told Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel. “I know he’s not going to be on every game and he’s not going to be in the normal sort of role of sitting there at the desk. I think they’ll use him more selectively than that. But keep this in mind: When Michael wants to be he’s a very thoughtful observer of the game, and he expresses himself very well. I mean, think of him on The Last Dance.

“And whenever he sat down for an interview, not the courtside interview as the game has just ended, but a real interview, whether it was with me or Ahmad [Rashad] or whomever—I mean, he didn’t do them every week, there were too many demands on his time—but when he did them, he was really good. And he didn’t give boilerplate answers. He was thoughtful about it. So I think he’ll be as good as he wants to be.”

Costas, of course, was front and center for NBC during Jordan’s legendary run for the Chicago Bulls. That gave him an up-close look at how the Hall of Famer operated as he became arguably the greatest to ever play the game.

Michael Jordan’s contributions to NBC’s coverage will be one of the biggest storylines to the NBA’s return to the network. NBC has a doubleheader Tuesday night as the 2025-26 season officially gets underway, starting with the Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder game. That, of course, marks Kevin Durant’s return to OKC after he arrived in Houston this year. The Thunder will also celebrate the franchise’s NBA title.