Whatever relationship Maria Taylor and Rachel Nichols once had, it is officially over after a recording leaked out to The New York Times.
Back in July 2020 during the NBA Playoffs in the Orlando Bubble, Rachel Nichols was reportedly upset over Taylor getting to cover the NBA Finals when Nichols herself expected to be the one getting that job. She vented her frustrations in a phone call while confined to her room in a Disney hotel, but didn’t realize her video was still on.
Via Kevin Draper of The New York Times:
“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.”
Maria Taylor did not take the slander from Rachel Nichols as she is now refusing to interact with Nichols on the air. The report says she would host NBA Countdown, though she would not do any interviews with Nichols.
“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.”
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“I will not call myself a victim, but I certainly have felt victimized and I do not feel as though my complaints have been taken seriously,” she wrote in an email to ESPN executives, two weeks after the Rachel Nichols incident, which was obtained by The Times. “In fact, the first time I have heard from HR after 2 incidents of racial insensitivity was to ask if I leaked Rachel’s tape to the media. I would never do that.”
She added: “Simply being a front facing black woman at this company has taken its toll physically and mentally.”
Nichols told the New York Times that she reached out to Taylor to apologize, but Taylor wanted nothing to do with her.
