ESPN commentator Rachel Nichols apologized Monday for racist comments she made during a videotaped phone call last year in which she suggested her colleague Maria Taylor was given a higher position at the network only because she is Black.
The network has since removed Nichols as the courtside reporter for the NBA Finals and replaced her with Malika Andrews, according to reports. By late Tuesday afternoon, ESPN had also scrubbed “The Jump” — a show which Nichols has hosted since 2016 — for one day but planned to bring it back on the air by Wednesday, according to The New York Post.
Nichols, who is white, issued the apology Monday during the opening of her show, where she was poised to take center stage as part of ESPN’s marquee coverage for this year’s NBA Finals, which begin Tuesday night.
“So the first thing they teach in journalism school is don’t be the story. And I don’t plan to break that rule today or distract from a fantastic Finals, but I also don’t want to let this moment pass without saying how much I respect, how much I value our colleagues here at ESPN, how deeply, deeply sorry I am for disappointing those I hurt — particularly Maria Taylor — and how grateful I am to be part of this outstanding team.”
The controversy first sprang up at the network last July while Nichols was covering the NBA bubble in Orlando during the height of the pandemic.
Confined to her hotel room for a week due to the NBA’s coronavirus protocols, Nichols was unaware that a video camera was rolling during a phone conversation with Adam Mendelsohn, whom she contacted to land an interview with Lakers star LeBron James, according to reports.
Around this same time Nichols and Taylor were vying to host pregame and postgame shows during the network’s basketball coverage of the 2020 NBA Finals, a coveted staff position that Taylor was ultimately assigned to by the front office.
During the call, Nichols told Mendelsohn she felt Taylor wasn’t getting the NBA Finals assignment based on merit but because ESPN was “feeling pressure” about racial diversity.
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in one video clip obtained by The New York Times. “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. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away ...
“I just want them to go somewhere else — it’s in my contract, by the way; this job is in my contract in writing,” Nichols told Mendelsohn, according to the Times.
Her comments were recorded and automatically uploaded to an internal server at company headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, where numerous ESPN employees had access to the footage. Soon a cellphone copy of the video was being shared among the staff, sparking widespread outrage behind the scenes.
It wasn’t long before the leaked video reached the brass, who began efforts to tamp down the controversy but ultimately declined to discipline Nichols.
The leaked videotape caused such a stir at the network over the past year that the hosts of ESPN’s premier basketball show, “NBA Countdown” considered a boycott in which they would refuse to appear on air during the 2021 playoffs.
Discussions over the remarks turned bitter because the network took no real corrective action, which was indicative of its long history of sweeping race matters under the rug, according to the Times.
An ESPN employee who was part of the network’s NBA coverage told the Times that Nichols not getting punished over her comments was “an active source of pain.”
Multiple Black ESPN employees said they told one another after hearing the conversation that it confirmed their suspicions that outwardly supportive white people talk differently behind closed doors, according to the Times.
In a statement, Mendelsohn said: “I will share what I believed then and still believe to be true. Maria deserved and earned the position, and Rachel must respect it. Maria deserved it because of her work, and ESPN recognized that like many people and companies in America, they must intentionally change. Just because Maria got the job does not mean Rachel shouldn’t get paid what she deserves. Rachel and Maria should not be forced into a zero-sum game by ESPN, and Rachel needed to call them out.”
Nichols said she has since reached out to Taylor to apologize through texts and phone calls.
“Maria has chosen not to respond to these offers, which is completely fair and a decision I respect,” Nichols said.
Taylor, meanwhile, has declined to comment on the matter.
Her contract was set to expire in roughly two weeks, reports said. Last week she turned down an offer that would have raised her pay to nearly $5 million a year as one of ESPN’s rising stars, reports said.
Whether or not ESPN and Taylor agree on a contract, the internal damage from the past year has been substantial, the Times reported.
Part of the fallout over the controversy was felt Monday by actress Rachel Nichols, who was misidentified and inadvertently blasted by hundreds of social media users over the ESPN host’s comments.
“I woke up to HUNDREDS of Tweets YELLING AT ME and I had no idea what was happening!” she exclaimed on social media Monday.
The Finals begin Tuesday night between the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks.
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