Michael Jordan is not expected to return to NBC Sports’s NBA coverage, Front Office Sports has learned. NBC scored a major coup when it landed His Airness as a “special on-air contributor” before the 2025–26 season. It was the first time Air Jordan really talked basketball on TV since 2020’s The Last Dance documentary, which focused on his Bulls dynasty. NBC aired all six of Jordan’s NBA titles during the network’s golden era of 1990s basketball coverage.
More on Michael Jordan: Recent HoopsHype RumorsA Ferrari once owned by Michael Jordan, which later disappeared from public view for more than two decades before being rediscovered earlier this year, will sell at auction this September. Purchased in 1997, the Ferrari made its most notable cameo with Jordan behind the wheel following Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals, where Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls dynasty secured their fifth championship. The 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello, which has a pre-sale estimate of $700,000-$1.3 million, is being brought to auction through a partnership between marketplace Joopiter and Curated, the supercar dealership responsible for rediscovering the vehicle. — 8/26/2026 New York Times
There may be no bigger fan of Scottie Barnes than Darko Rajakovic. The Toronto Raptors head coach recently sat down for an interview in his native Serbia, during which he likened the franchise star to one of the all-time greats. "I think there is no coach and there is no success for a coach without players," the bench boss — about to enter his fourth season holding the clipboard in Toronto — began explaining in Serbian. "You look at all our greatest coaches, who are fantastic ... they all became great coaches by taking care of the players, and I think that's on every level ... there's no Phil Jackson without Michael Jordan. My Michael Jordan is Scottie Barnes." — 8/23/2026 SportsNet
Gough, 42, never found out who the original owner was and had to sign an NDA in the deal, so is unable to disclose how much he paid for jersey — which he displayed at his house in Puerto Rico for two years before he put it in a vault to keep it safe. “It’s interesting, because I have a lot of great art. And when people come to the house, they skip right over the art and go right to the jersey,” he said. “That’s when I realized that this stuff is the new modern art.” — 8/23/2026 New York Post
The owner of Michael Jordan’s Game 3 1998 NBA Finals jersey has predicted it could fetch a jaw-dropping $100 million — shattering the record for the most expensive piece of game-worn sports memorabilia ever sold. Sports investor and actor Rob Gough is selling the one-of-a-kind white, game-winning jersey four years after he purchased it, The Post can exclusively reveal. “I think this will be the first jersey to hit $100 million,” he said. — 8/23/2026 New York Post
Can a league restrict opportunities for a business to engage in sponsorship and endorsement negotiations with a team and a player on that team? This is a dicey topic, because there are businesses that enter into contracts with teams and players on those teams, and the inability to continue doing so could raise antitrust law, labor law, intellectual property law, freedom-of-contract and other legal problems. Forget the Clippers and Leonard for a moment. Consider when Michael Jordan owned the Charlotte Hornets. Several Hornets players, including Kemba Walker and Cody Zeller, had endorsement deals with Jordan Brand, the Nike-owned company closely associated with Jordan. That might have seemed like a conflict of interest, but it broke no NBA rules. — 8/21/2026 Sportico
During a recent episode of "The Pat Bev Show," former NBA player Patrick Beverley boldly claimed he would pick Ja Morant ahead of NBA legend and arguably the greatest pure point guard of all time, John Stockton. Although such a statement could be deemed blasphemous, Beverley justified it by stating: "Some people go John Stockton. I'm going Ja Morant. Some people go John Stockton because he's an actual point guard. He's going to get the ball where it needs to be. He's going to be heavy on the pocket pass. He's going to be a great leader. That's cool. Ja Morant is running circles around John Stockton's a–. Straight up. He's going to be jumping over John Stockton's a–.""I'm talking about the Stockton with the little shorts that was playing against Michael Jordan and them. I'm a huge Stockton fan. He played against the greatest ever. He did compete. I'm not taking that away from him. As a better player, a lot of people would take John Stockton. I'm taking Ja Morant." — 8/20/2026 Yahoo! Sports
NBA Courtside: Jeff Teague says if Kyrie Irving was 6’6” he would be better than Michael Jordan: “It’s nothing he can’t do. Bro, what could he not do? What can he not do, bro? Name me something he can’t do. He’s not scared of the moment, if he was 6’6” it’s no weakness in his game.” — 8/20/2026 x.com
Tomer Azarly: If you could go back and team up with any player in NBA history all-time, who would it be? Can you even pick just one? Chet Holmgren: Ooh, that's a tough one. Yeah, I don't know. Can I maybe give a starting five? Obviously Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, I'd say like OKC Kevin Durant, and one more. I'd say 2011 Dirk Nowitzki. — 8/20/2026 Clutch Points
Plus, NBA legend Michael Jordan’s personally owned 1989 Sports Illustrated August edition magazine, with “Michael Jordan” specifically printed on the address label, sold for $13,148. — 8/18/2026 FOX8
“’The Last Dance’ represents really one of the defining chapters in the history of all sports, not just basketball,” Caitlin Donovan, Joopiter’s global head of sales, told The Athletic. “It’s really more than just the conclusion of (Jordan’s) career with the Bulls, it really marked the culmination of one of the greatest dynasties that I feel was ever assembled.” Bidding for the jersey, which has been photo-matched to Game 3 by third-party authenticator MeiGray, opens on Sept. 15. Should the jersey reach its pre-sale estimate, it would challenge the record for a basketball jersey sold at public auction. The current high is the $10.1 million paid in 2022 for Jordan’s “Last Dance” jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals. — 8/17/2026 New York Times
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Michael Jordan not expected to return to NBC Sports' NBA coverage
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