Rachel Nichols’ Comments About Colleague Maria Taylor an ‘Active Source of Pain’ at ESPN, Report Says

Inner struggles have plagued ESPN since Rachel Nichols’ leaked feedback about variety and her fellow reporter Maria Taylor, The New York Times reported. The battle originated when Nichols, who’s white, voiced frustrations over the telephone with Adam Mendelsohn, adviser to NBA celebrity LeBron James. Nichols complained that the community determined to interchange her with Taylor, who’s Black, as host of the community’s protection of 2020 NBA Finals. She appeared to suggest she felt the transfer was impressed by Taylor’s race, in keeping with a 20-minute recording of the decision obtained by the Instances. “If it is advisable to give her extra issues to do as a result of you feel strain about your crappy longtime document on variety—which, by the way in which, I do know personally from the feminine aspect of it—like, go for it,” Nichols mentioned. “Simply discover it some other place. You aren’t going to search out it from me or taking my factor away.” The decision was recorded and saved on ESPN’s servers till it was later recorded by an worker who had entry to it who shared it amongst different staff earlier than it was leaked to The New York Instances. The paper experiences the one one that has been disciplined for the reason that name is the Black producer who shared the recording; she has since left the community. ESPN’s determination to not punish Nichols stays “an lively supply of ache” on the community, a supply advised the Instances.