Now we have the internet, where players can go and share whatever they want to. At that point, it was the only inside look viewers got at the NBA.
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So too did my interview with Rashad, in which the former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver and pioneering Black sportscaster discussed how NBA media has changed since Inside Stuff, why basketball rivalries aren’t what they used to be and Jordan’s feelings about the GOAT debate.Īhmad Rashad: Not a day goes by that I don’t see somebody that tells me they grew up watching NBA Inside Stuff. Though the broadcaster’s golfing buddy doesn’t appear on camera in Rashad’s new ESPN+ show Ahmad Inside, Jordan casts a Jumpman-shaped shadow over its five episodes, each an affectionate one-on-one interview with an NBA legend about the ’80s and ’90s - what Rashad likes to call “the day.” His sit-downs with Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Gary Payton and Pat Riley inevitably drift to talk of His Airness. “He lives across the street! I just left him at the golf course.” “ Hung out?” the 71-year-old says with a laugh. “When is the last time you and Jordan hung out?” I ask Rashad, who’s on the phone from his home in Florida.
The obvious conflict of interest was one Rashad’s bosses seemed willing to live with, if only because it gave NBC unprecedented access to Jordan’s cloistered world. And then, of course, there was the infamous sunglasses interview before Game 1 of the 1993 NBA Finals, when Jordan, looking to break his media boycott, marshaled Rashad and NBC cameras at a moment’s notice to defend himself against rumors surrounding his gambling activities. One scene in the ESPN docuseries showed Rashad - amiable host of the much-missed Saturday morning staple NBA Inside Stuff - riding shotgun in MJ’s car on the way to a game that Rashad himself was assigned to cover as a sideline reporter for NBA on NBC. Along the way, we were reminded of one of the chummiest relationships between subject and journalist in NBA history - that of Michael Jordan and Ahmad Rashad. Amid the great pandemic-wrought sports drought of 2020, The Last Dance provided the world with a refresher on the supremacy of the 1990s Chicago Bulls dynasty.
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