ESPN's Maria Taylor Well-Positioned For Current Contract Negotiations

Maria Taylor

After her private and insensitive comments were made public, ESPN’s Rachel Nichols was dropped from the sidelines to start the NBA Finals broadcast.

Now it is unclear whether host Maria Taylor will finish the league’s marquee event. This is despite a lucrative contract offer.

Though it isn’t “Stephen A Smith money,” ESPN has a contract on the table for Taylor in the neighborhood of $3 million per year, The NY Post has learned.

The deal represents roughly three times more than her current $1 million per year.

Sources said Taylor has interest from both NBC and Amazon.

Taylor’s current contract expires in less than two weeks, on July 20, which is the date of a potential Game 6 of the NBA Finals. If a new agreement isn’t reached, it is unclear right now what ESPN and Taylor would do if the Suns-Bucks series extends.

Besides hosting The Finals and “NBA Countdown,” Taylor, 34, is the college football national championship sideline reporter and NCAA Women’s Tournament host. The new deal would expand her role even further, though the specifics are unknown.

During the pandemic, when salaries were beginning to be cut, top-paid talent was asked to take 15 percent pay cuts, and with layoffs on the horizon, ESPN offered Taylor a deal that would have eventually escalated to nearly $5 million in the final year. Taylor turned it down.

The 53-year-old Smith has a salary of nearly $8 million. Taylor has hoped to end up in that neighborhood, according to sources.

Though ESPN is now offering less, the around $3 million per is still a significant raise and comes in the wake of ESPN pruning salaries. For example, longtime quirky “SportsCenter” anchor Kenny Mayne was offered a 61 percent cut from around $1.7 million salary, while MMA personality Ariel Helwani, who was making nearly a half-million, was asked to accept a 5 percent decrease. Both Mayne and Helwani left the company.