ESPN without warning failed to broadcast the scheduled afternoon NBA show of reporter Rachel Nichols on Tuesday — hours after blocking her from sideline coverage of the NBA Finals due to her suggestion to LeBron James’s key advisor that Black colleague Maria Taylor got a hosting gig last year because of her race.
CNBC reports the drama at the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports came in the hours before the finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns was due to tip off in Phoenix.
Nichols, who is white, was the primary sideline reporter for ESPN during the NBA playoffs. The expectation had been that she would continue in that role during the finals.
But on Sunday, The New York Times published a bombshell report that detailed the circumstances of Nichols’ accidentally recorded call with James advisor Adam Mendelsohn in July 2020, and the backlash they caused within the Walt Disney-owned sports cable TV giant.
In that call, Nichols suggested to Mendelsohn, who also is white, that Taylor got a plum spot hosting 2020 Finals shows because of her race, the Times reported. Nichols expected to get that spot.
“If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it,” Nichols said on the call, audio of which was published by The Times.
“Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away,” she said.
According to the Times report, Mendelsohn shortly afterward in that call said: “I don’t know. I’m exhausted. Between Me Too and Black Lives Matter, I got nothing left.”
Nichols laughed at his remark.
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