Things could get a bit awkward on ESPN during the pregame show of game 1 of the NBA finals on Tuesday night.
On Sunday the NY Times revealed that the cast of ESPN’s NBA Countdown including Jalen Rose threatened to boycott the show because they felt Rachel Nichols hadn’t been punished after she was heard calling Maria Taylor a “diversity” hire in a leaked audio recording.
There has been significant damage and infighting at ESPN the past year after Rachel Nichols said in a caught-on-tape conversation that Maria Taylor was selected for a marquee job because the network was “feeling pressure” on diversity. @kevinmdraper: https://t.co/n0MXwaCI8h
— Oskar Garcia (@oskargarcia) July 4, 2021
Via NY Times
As the N.B.A. playoffs started in May, the stars of ESPN’s marquee basketball show, “NBA Countdown,” discussed whether they would refuse to appear on it.
They were objecting to a production edict from executives that they believed was issued to benefit a sideline reporter and fellow star, Rachel Nichols, despite comments she had made suggesting that the host of “NBA Countdown,” Maria Taylor, had gotten that job because she is Black. Nichols is white.
A preshow call with Taylor and the other commentators — Jalen Rose, Adrian Wojnarowski and Jay Williams — as well as “NBA Countdown” staff members had turned acrimonious, and Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s president, had several phone conversations while at a family event to try to help smooth things over.
Some of those involved saw the initial maneuvering as a sign of the network favoring Nichols despite a backdrop of criticism from employees who complained that the sports network has long mishandled problems with racism. It had declined to discipline Nichols despite fury throughout the company over her remark, which she made during a phone conversation nearly a year ago after learning that she would not host coverage during the 2020 N.B.A. finals, as she had been expecting.
In one of the leaked recordings, Nichols could be heard laughing after LeBron James’ spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said he was “exhausted” by the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.
This is definitely the worst part of the NYT Rachel Nichols article. pic.twitter.com/wS7S6l06j7
— K. –– Free Iran (@ThatPersianGuy) July 4, 2021
On Monday, Jalen Rose’s daughter, Mariah Rose, uploaded a TikTok video in which she blasts Nichols over the leaked recording by calling her a subpar reporter whose white privilege didn’t work this time.
let’s discuss rachel nichols….this is a tale as old as time 🤦🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/t7Rv9t6EQI
— mariah rose (@mariahcrose) July 5, 2021
“Let’s quickly talk about miss Rachel Nichols… let’s talk about how you’re related to Dianne Sawyer arguably the queen of ABC… You are a woman in the sports world and you sat there and you laughed about the Me Too movement, about your fellow women complaining about being sexually assaulted at work, do you think that’s funny? What really got me is that you’re tired of the Black Lives Matter movement, because you weren’t tired posting about it or making your stupid little storybook monologues about it, maybe instead of crying and calling Maria a diversity token you can direct that energy to the people that think they’re can only be one woman on that stage. And if we’re being real Rachel Nichols is a subpar reporter, subpar, boring, not great, I’m sorry your white privilege didn’t work this time, maybe next time.”