Sports fans and pundits were upset that ESPN’s Rachel Nichols had escaped punishment for a year after suggesting co-worker Maria Taylor was promoted over her due to the “push for diversity.”
Well, it turns out that Nichols has been penalized — twice over — even if it took a complete revolution of the earth around the sun for her to get her comeuppance.
Today, Nichols is not only buried under an avalanche of criticism after those disparaging comments finally came to light in June 2021, she has also been removed from any coverage of the 2021 NBA Finals.
Furthermore, Nichols has been replaced on the NBA sideline reporting duties by a younger, and some say more attractive, Black woman named Malika Andrews.
Nichols became a lightning rod of controversy when she complained in June 2020 to LeBron James’ publicist that ESPN was allegedly giving Taylor some of her TV roles to placate the Black Lives Matter movement. The country underwent an intense racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer on Memorial Day 2020.
There was just one problem with the private phone call from Nichols hotel room in Orlando, Florida: Nichols’ TV mic was still on. It was subsequently recorded back at ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. A former Black employee recorded on her phone and gave it to Taylor, initiating a yearlong era of internal strife at the sports leader.
Until today, that Black employee was the only one punished as she was suspended for two weeks without pay and then demoted to undesirable duties until she quit.
Instead of Nichols hosting the “NBA Countdown” prior to the games, the duties now go to Taylor. Nichols, however, will continue to host the daytime sports show “The Jump” on ESPN.
