Rachel Nichols' argument to LeBron James confidante Adam Mendelsohn was simple: She's all for ESPN emphasizing diversity, unless it threatens her position at the company.
And that is the biggest takeaway from this unfolding media bombshell. As we've known since the beginning of time, people sometimes express different opinions publicly and privately, especially when they have a personal stake in the matter.
Now the question is, will Nichols' reputation be permanently destroyed, or will her remarks eventually be brushed aside as a poorly worded gripe?
It's been four days since the New York Times published its explosive story on Nichols' comments from last July, which were recorded because the longtime NBA host accidentally left a camera running while quarantined in her hotel room at the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World. As a result, her phone conversation with Mendelsohn was uploaded to ESPN's internal servers, and quickly made its way around the network, the Times reports.
ESPN didn't publicly address the situation until the Times story ran on July 4. Since then, Nichols has been removed from ABC's coverage of the NBA Finals, where she was slated to work the sidelines.
Nichols expressed her frustration to Mendelsohn after learning ESPN had planned to name rising star Maria Taylor as the host of the network's pregame and postgame shows during the NBA Finals. Taylor is Black.
"I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball," Nichols said, per the 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."
The fallout among ESPN's NBA team was significant: Taylor said she didn't want Nichols to appear on "NBA Countdown" during the Finals, while Adrian Wojnarowski called Nichols a "bad teammate." Meanwhile, Jalen Rose expressed that he and other Black employees would no longer extend their credibility to the company.
Despite the internal acrimony, ESPN kept Nichols on its NBA playoff coverage, opting to run pre-recorded segments so she wouldn't interact with Taylor. The move reportedly only further enflamed tensions.
There is a lot of blame to go around, beginning with ESPN, which should've settled this internal drama long before it was splashed on the front page of the Times. But the network took a hands-off approach, and is now left to play clean up.
The only employee known to be disciplined was a digital video producer named Kayla Johnson, who sent the video to Taylor, and was suspended for two weeks without pay. Johnson is Black as well.
On Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver expressed frustration with the story, saying Nichols' career shouldn't be derailed due to one comment made during a supposedly private phone conversation. It's too early to say whether that will be the case. Nichols' daily NBA program, "The Jump," was back on the air Wednesday after a one-day hiatus. ESPN said it removed Nichols from Finals coverage to keep the focus on the games.
There is something unsettling about a mistakenly recorded private conversation being passed around ESPN and used against Nichols, especially given her own complaints about the environment at the network for women. "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," she told Mendelsohn.
We all have bad moments and say things we regret. Private venting sessions among friends aren't indicative of how people view the world.
But they are indicative of how people view their own situations. Nichols, like most high-level broadcasters, is known to be competitive and territorial. People don't generally rise to her level without power plays along the way. '
Mendelsohn's response to Nichols is telling as well. The prominent political and communications strategist is a close advisor to James and his agent Rich Paul, and also serves as a co-founder for James' voting rights group. In other words, his progressive credentials are legit — at least in the cultural sense.
And yet, in a private moment, he said he was "exhausted" by the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. The comment elicited laughter from Nichols.
There are other apparent hypocrites here, too. Earlier this week, former ESPN NBA Insider Amin Elhassan blasted Wojnarowski for his reportedly disparaging comment about Nichols, accusing the venerated reporter of "putting a foot on" Black careers.
"Do you wanna talk about the newsbreakers (with an -s!) of diverse background — who have rapports with players that Adrian doesn't have — that he saw as threatening because his sources are all front office people, and assistant coaches trying to move up, and maybe a video coordinator that's trying to get a better job somewhere else?," said Elhassan on "The Dan Le Batard Show."
Much like Nichols, Wojnarowski says the right things about racial inclusion, until it apparently impacts his own standing.
Outwardly, media organizations have undergone rapid changes over the last year. But internally, self-interest prevails.
Nichols' quarantine phone call shows that to be true.
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The Greg Hill Show expands by one: The GHS co-host search is finally over. Later this month, former NESN personality Courtney Cox will be added as the show's third voice, replacing Danielle Murr.
As a longtime TV personality, I am most curious in seeing how Cox makes the transition to radio, where segments are free-flowing and unscripted. Regardless, it's great to see another woman added to the Boston sports talk radio mix. There are many hungry and unique voices in this town. They just need to be given an opportunity.
NBA Finals ratings still down: ABC garnered 8.56 million viewers Tuesday for Game 1 of the Finals between the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks — down 35 percent from the Raptors and Warriors from 2019. (Game 1 was up 15 percent over last year's Heat-Lakers contest.)
There are a couple of explanations for the NBA's continued ratings decline. The Finals are airing in the middle of the summer, opposed to the late spring. The calendar makes a big difference. There's also the fact that live TV viewership continues to decline each year. Even the NFL isn't insulated from this trend, though its TV numbers continue to dominate.
With multibillion-dollar rights deals, live sports remain the most valuable entity on TV. But networks keep paying more for diminishing returns.
Free the broadcasters: It was hilarious to hear John Sterling mistakenly call an Aaron Judge home run based off a replay. But most importantly, it illustrates the obvious drawbacks to announcers calling road games from TV monitors.
As long as broadcasters are vaccinated, they should be allowed to resume normal travel after the All-Star Break. The product suffers otherwise.
