The Rachel Nichols Flap

Rachel Nichols covers NBA basketball for ESPN. Her long-running show “The Jump” is devoted exclusively to the the NBA, I believe (I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of it). Nichols is White.

Maria Taylor is a sideline reporter and presenter for ESPN. She appears on broadcasts of football and basketball games, and maybe some other stuff. Taylor is Black.

Until last season, Nichols had hosted ESPN’s NBA Finals pregame show. She expected to host it again last season, but was replaced, apparently without any explanation, by Taylor.

In response to the move, or perhaps in anticipation of it, Nichols complained privately. Unfortunately, her private conversation was recorded, without her consent, under circumstances that are not clear (at least not to me). Here is what Nichols said:

I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball. 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.

Someone shared this recording with ESPN staffers. One of them shared it with Taylor.