People in the industry have known this from the beginning.
ESPN was getting a lot of heat, especially after the George Floyd murder, about their minority hiring practices. Rachel Nichols, who had been with the company forever, had it ironclad in her contract that she could host the NBA Finals.
What happened next was Nichols being secretly recorded, upset that ESPN pressured her to let Maria Taylor take her place so that ESPN could look more diverse.
It is why many people today are still on Rachel Nichols’s side of this debate. It isn’t that they are against Maria Taylor or the idea black people should get more opportunities, but if your contract states this is your job, you shouldn’t be forced to give it away.
Here is what Nichols had to say to the All The Smoke podcast about how it all went down via Awful Announcing.
“It all started really good a few years ago. We can go back to 2019, three years ago. ESPN gave me a new contract, I’d already been there with The Jump, and in the contract was that I was going to host the NBA Finals. And you guys have known me for years, I have covered this sport for decades, the idea that I was going to host the NBA Finals, that was my dream job. That was going to be my first time doing it. It just meant the world. I mean, I called every executive involved personally to thank them. I was just so, so excited.”
“And Maria Taylor ended up getting the NBA Countdown job. I really wanted to make an effort to welcome her, to open my door to her. I sent her flowers when I got the job because I was really, really happy for her.”
Jackson then asks “What changed on how you felt in the workplace?” Nichols says “Things got complicated later that season. You all know, it was 2020. We had a pandemic. There was the tragic murder of your friend, George Floyd. There were a lot of difficult conversations with this country looking itself in the face and seeing what had to change, what had to be different. And The New York Times did an expose in July of 2020 on racism at ESPN and the lack of opportunities for people of color. And the executives at ESPN said, I think, about what people would expect, ‘We’d like to give people more opportunities, we’re continuing to grow,’ all of those things.”
“Around that same time, I got a phone call asking me would I step aside for Maria to host the NBA Finals and have me go back to being a sideline reporter. They stressed it was my choice, they weren’t telling me to do this, because it was in my contract. But they were putting a lot of pressure on me. I was being told ‘Well, you’re not a team player.’ Which any woman in business knows is code, right? Women are supposed to be kumbaya, and team players, and helpful, and men are aggressive sharks, and all that? I just felt like ‘Hey, I worked so long, decades for this job. I have done everything that was asked. We put on some great shows leading up to the playoffs. And I wanted a chance to do it.”
It was always tricky because she was being spied on, and her private conversation was leaked to the world.
If something was in your contract that you wanted to make your whole career, and then they tried to take it away from you, wouldn’t you vent as well?
Nichols now has a new gig with Showtime Sports and seems very happy about her new opportunities.
Flip the page for the full video of her on Up in Smoke.