Michael Jordan returned to NBC in May 2025 with one of the loudest announcements the network could possibly stage. “I’m back” flashed across the screen at Radio City Music Hall as the crowd erupted over the idea of Jordan finally joining NBA media coverage.

Nine months later, Charles Barkley delivered a brutal assessment of how NBC handled the entire rollout: they barely used him.

Appearing on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, Charles Barkley did not spare the network he works alongside, or the men running it. “Those are my guys at NBC, Mark Lazarus and Greg Hughes, but that was a terrible look,” Barkley said of Michael Jordan’s NBC debut. The host had set the stage: Jordan appeared as a special contributor for approximately one broadcast and then essentially vanished for the rest of the season. Barkley confirmed the perception. “That was a terrible look.”

Jordan was officially announced as a “special contributor” during NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation on May 12, 2025, immediately creating enormous expectations around what his basketball insight could bring to the network’s coverage.

Reports initially suggested the deal could approach $40 million annually before those figures were later walked back. NBC never publicly disclosed the actual value of Jordan’s agreement.

Whatever the investment, the return on screen was negligible enough that Barkley, sitting with a media insider and speaking freely, felt comfortable calling it a failure publicly. “It was really not a good look for them at all,” he said. “I mean, come on, man. We anytime we can get Magic, because the three most important figures in NBA history are Michael, Magic, and Larry Bird. Those are the three most prominent players in NBA history.”

Barkley’s real frustration was that NBC had access to Jordan’s basketball mind and barely used it. “He can sit down with them for an hour once a month to talk about relevant stuff happening in the NBA,” Barkley suggested.

That kind of recurring access was exactly what many viewers believed NBC was promising when Jordan’s hiring was first announced. Instead, the role remained vague throughout the season and never developed into a meaningful on-air presence.

From the beginning, NBC never clearly defined what “special contributor” actually meant. There was little clarity about whether Jordan would appear in studio, at games, or remotely, and that ambiguity ultimately matched the final product viewers received.

“Magic and Larry Saved the NBA”: Barkley’s Case for Why Jordan’s Voice Matters

Barkley also explained why he viewed Jordan’s limited role as such a massive missed opportunity.

“Magic and Larry saved the NBA,” Barkley said. “Everybody looks at how great the NBA is today, they don’t realize that before David Stern, the average salary was only $250,000.”

In Barkley’s eyes, Jordan belongs in that same category of transformational figures whose voices still carry enormous weight with basketball fans.

NBC’s original NBA era from 1990 through 2002 was defined by Jordan’s dominance. All six of his championships came during the network’s previous run with the league, helping turn NBA on NBC into appointment television for an entire generation of fans.

That history made Jordan’s return especially important once NBC secured its new 11-year NBA rights agreement alongside ESPN and Amazon.

Barkley’s argument ultimately came down to one idea: NBC had the biggest possible basketball voice available and barely put him on television.

Fans who grew up watching Jordan dominate during NBC’s original run expected far more than one major appearance and occasional clips throughout the season.

“I’m really looking forward to that,” Barkley said about the possibility of a larger Jordan role moving forward. “And yeah, NBC, that was not a good look for them at all.”

Considering Barkley was openly criticizing his own broadcast partners, the comments landed as one of the sharpest public media critiques of the NBA season.