Rachel Nichols apologized to ESPN colleague Maria Taylor on air Monday after a leaked audio clip revealed Nichols, who’s white, complaining about Taylor, who’s black, getting Nichols’ NBA Finals internet hosting gig final yr for what she believed have been “range” causes.
“So the very first thing they train you in journalism faculty is don’t be the story. And I don’t plan to interrupt that rule at present or distract from a incredible Finals,” Nichols mentioned to open “The Soar” on ESPN 2. “However I additionally don’t wish to let this second move with out saying how a lot I respect, how a lot I worth our colleagues right here at ESPN. How deeply, deeply sorry I’m for disappointing these I harm, notably Maria Taylor, and the way grateful I’m to be a part of this excellent crew.”
Former NBA gamers Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins, Nichols’ co-stars on “The Soar,” expressed assist for Nichols.
Clips obtained by the New York Occasions confirmed Nichols speaking to Adam Mendelsohn, an adviser to LeBron James, whereas she was within the NBA bubble final July. Nichols was unaware her video digicam was on whereas she was on the telephone, and it was recorded and uploaded to an ESPN server.
“I want Maria Taylor all of the success on the earth — she covers soccer, she covers basketball,” Nichols mentioned in a single clip. “If you’ll want to give her extra issues to do as a result of you’re feeling stress about your crappy longtime file on range — which, by the way in which, I do know personally from the feminine aspect of it — like, go for it. Simply discover it some other place. You aren’t going to search out it from me or taking my factor away.
“I simply need them to go some other place — it’s in my contract, by the way in which; this job is in my contract in writing,” Nichols added.
Many ESPN workers have been “outraged” by Nichols’ feedback within the video, The Occasions reported. An ESPN worker who is part of the community’s NBA protection instructed The Occasions that Nichols not getting punished over her feedback was “an lively supply of ache.”
Taylor’s ESPN contract is about to run out in roughly two weeks. The Publish’s Andrew Marchand reported final week she had turned down a proposal that will’ve escalated to just about $5 million a yr.
Taylor has not commented publicly because the launch of the clip and declined remark to The Occasions.
