As basketball fans know, the 1997-98 season wasn't truly Michael Jordan's NBA swan song, and the league had a small hand in bringing Jordan back in a formal capacity.
Jordan became the Washington Wizards' president of basketball operations in January 2000 and gained an ownership stake in the franchise. Steve Wyche, who covered the team for the Washington Post, revealed some of the machinations that happened behind the scenes leading up to the move.
"The NBA wanted to find a way to get Michael involved, especially with a lack of diversity ownership in the NBA," Wyche said on the Wizards Talk podcast.