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Maria Taylor apparently is not on friendly terms with Rachel Nichols.
Last year while inside the NBA’s Disney Bubble, Rachel Nichols was reportedly upset that Taylor had gotten the hosting gig during the NBA Finals. Nichols vented her frustrations in a private phone call with LeBron’s spokesman Adam Mendelsohn while inside her hotel room but didn’t realize her video cameras were still on.
In the video leaked by an ESPN employee Nichols could be heard complaining that Taylor got the NBA Finals hosting job because ESPN felt pressuure to make a diversity hire.
Rachel Nichols: “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.” pic.twitter.com/aB5MifujuX
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 4, 2021
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Rachel Nichols said in July 2020. “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.”
According to the Times, Taylor was so angry with Nichols’ comments that she refused to work with Nichols on air.
“A few days later, Taylor reconsidered and told the company she would host “NBA Countdown” during the playoffs on one condition: She did not want Nichols to appear on the show.
In Taylor’s view, according to six people who have spoken to her, ESPN executives agreed to the stipulation but violated it almost immediately by allowing Nichols to make short appearances without interacting with Taylor. ESPN declined to comment about the arrangement.”
Nichols told the times that she has aplogized to Taylor via phone and text but Taylor has refused to accept her apology.
In response to questions from The Times, Nichols said she was frustrated and was “unloading to a friend about ESPN’s process, not about Maria.” But she added: “My own intentions in that conversation, and the opinion of those in charge at ESPN, are not the sum of what matters here — if Maria felt the conversation was upsetting, then it was, and I was the cause of that for her.”
Nichols said she reached out to Taylor to apologize through texts and phone calls. “Maria has chosen not to respond to these offers, which is completely fair and a decision I respect,” Nichols said.