Charles Barkley may have known Michael Jordan was going to join the Washington Wizards in 2001, but he never expected to see the six-time NBA champion to join NBC this year.
As NBC builds its NBA roster for their media rights deal that kicks in next season, the network shocked the sports world last week by announcing Jordan as a “special contributor” to their forthcoming coverage. Consider Barkley among those who were shocked.
Barkley recently joined Barstool Sports’ Spittin’ Chiclets podcast to discuss the NHL playoffs. And during the podcast, host Paul Bissonnette took a break from hockey to ask Barkley what he expects from Jordan on NBC. The answer? Not much.
“I have no idea what Michael is going to do. I don’t think he’s gonna do a lot,” Barkley admitted before clarifying, “I know he’s not gonna do a lot. I was 100% shocked, but I don’t think he’s gonna do a lot. Period.”
The prospect of getting to see Michael Jordan on the NBA on NBC again is undoubtedly exciting. But once everyone got over that ‘90s nostalgia-induced excitement, the overwhelming sentiment has been an expectation that he probably won’t be doing much for the network.
NBC hasn’t defined “special contributor” yet, but it reportedly means Jordan will mostly appear in taped segments. No one expects Michael Jordan to be Charles Barkley in the studio, but a few live appearances throughout the season would be nice. If Barkley was shocked once when Jordan joined NBC, who’s to say he can’t be shocked again by a few more TV appearances than we’re all expecting? Either way, kudos to NBC for putting this nugget out there to make sure we’re all watching for that first Jordan appearance.
Despite their well-documented falling out, Barkley still knows Jordan well. And if Charles Barkley does his best to avoid working too hard on TV, he’s definitely not expecting a billionaire like Michael Jordan to be much different.
