ESPN started the summer with two talented hosts who quarterbacked the network's NBA coverage. Now both of them are out of the picture.
The Rachel Nichols-Maria Taylor saga was a colossal blunder.
On Wednesday, we learned that ESPN is canceling Nichols' weekday show, "The Jump," and taking her off NBA coverage altogether. Though Nichols has one year remaining on her contract, her career at ESPN appears to be over.
"We mutually agreed that this approach regarding our NBA coverage was best for all concerned," David Roberts, ESPN's senior vice president of production, said in a statement. "Rachel is an excellent reporter, host and journalist, and we thank her for her many contributions to our NBA content."
Taylor, meanwhile, left ESPN last month for a lucrative gig at NBC Sports, where she'll cover the Olympics and NFL.
The genesis of this story dates back to last summer, when Nichols complained in a private phone call to one of LeBron James' confidants, Adam Mendelsohn, about ESPN's apparent plans to give Taylor a more prominent role in its NBA coverage.
"I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball," Nichols said. "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 things away."
How do you we know about this private phone call, you ask? Nichols forgot to turn off her personal camera, which was recording her in her hotel room, and automatically feeding footage to ESPN's servers in Bristol. At least one ESPN employee recorded the phone call on her cell phone and shared it with co-workers, according to the New York Times.
While the episode reportedly sparked an uproar in Bristol — the Times reports that employees were especially upset about Nichols' insinuation that Taylor was offered the "NBA Countdown" hosting job because she's Black — it was kept in-house for one year. Then the Times came out with its July 4 story about the situation, which included audio from Nichols' phone call with Mendesohn.
All hell broke loose. After seemingly not addressing the situation for 12 months (besides ensuring Nichols and Taylor wouldn't appear on the air together), ESPN immediately took her off the sidelines for the NBA Finals.
However, Nichols was still hosting "The Jump." She opened her show on the eve of the NBA Finals with an apology to Taylor.
A rising star, Taylor became the sideline reporter for "Saturday Night Football" on ABC, and started hosting editions of "NBA Countdown." The Times story came out while she was negotiating an extension with ESPN, which was offering her between $2 million and $3 million per year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
But Taylor turned them, signing a deal with NBC shortly thereafter.
There are various opinions about the severity of Nichols' conduct. Certainly, it's wrong to imply that a Black colleague is moving up the organization ladder due to affirmative action.
But ESPN didn't discipline Nichols until the story got out. Network execs didn't appear to find her comments offensive until they appeared in the New York Times.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, for one, was mystified by ESPN's handling of the situation. "Careers shouldn't be erased by a single comment," he said in July. "We should be judging people by the larger context of their body of work and who they are and what we know about them."
It's also worth noting that Nichols complained to Mendelsohn about something else at ESPN: Misogyny from top execs.
"Those same people — who are, like, generally white conservative male Trump voters — is part of the reason I've had a hard time at ESPN," Nichols said. "I basically finally just outworked everyone for so long that they had to recognize it."
Now ESPN is scrambling to reconfigure its NBA coverage, while paying Nichols an estimated $2 million to sit, and not stand, on the sidelines. They may model their new NBA afternoon show after "NFL Live," which features a rotating cast of regular contributors.
But without Nichols and Taylor, the talent pool is much thinner. ESPN could've fixed this problem. They were far too late, and much too sloppy.
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Too much venom directed at Cam?: The commentary about Cam Newton missing three days of practice for violating Covid-19 protocols has been harsh, especially since we don't know many details about his infraction. That's led some to say the media is needlessly moralizing, and not playing the story straight up.
But here's the thing: It's impossible for sentient human beings to separate sports matters from what's happening in the real world. Yes, Newton being unvaccinated puts the Patriots at a competitive disadvantage. But also: why doesn't Newton just get the vaccine? It is his body, but the science is pretty unquestionable here. Unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19, according to the CDC.
Get the shot, Cam. It will help you stay on the field, but more importantly, it's the sound thing to do.
Belichick's mysterious training camp: Credit Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News with this observation: "I guess I can understand why the #Patriots don't allow video of practice past early individual work: If social media had seen video of Mac Jones' practice here in Foxboro today, it would have cancelled Cam Newton."
That is a great point. The absence of practice footage means we're forced to rely on the sometimes conflicting accounts from reporters about who performed well that day. This game of training camp telephone creates confusion, and thus, ensures Bill Belichick is the final roster arbiter. Outside of Cam Newton, Mac Jones and some skill position players, we don't know how the rest of the roster is doing. Video would change some of that.
I know why it's barred.
Portnoy speaks on Barstool and MLB: Dave Portnoy said yesterday on "The Greg Hill Show" he thinks it's very unlikely Barstool and MLB will come to a streaming agreement. In fact, he says negotiations were never far along, and theorized MLB leaked info about their talks as a trial balloon.
That checks out. Worried about backlash, MLB wanted to see how the public would react to a Barstool partnership before proceeding further in the talks. It's underhanded, but understandable.
