Rachel Nichols is now free from the Worldwide Leader In Sports after the two sides reportedly came to a settlement this week.
According to a report from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Nichols and ESPN agreed to part ways, but there wasn’t any more details into what Nichols walked away with money-wise.
Marchand did note that Nichols was making between $1.5 and $2 million per year for ESPN.
“The settlement agreement came after Nichols had been exiled by ESPN following the fallout over her private comments about diversity at the network were made public in July 2021.
Nichols had one year remaining on her deal, but ESPN had no intention of using her after the network removed her from its NBA coverage prior to this season.”
In the wake of her comments about former co-worker Maria Taylor, ESPN removed Rachel Nichols from NBA coverage and canceled her show The Jump.
“We mutually agreed that this approach regarding our NBA coverage was best for all concerned,” David Roberts, ESPN’s senior vice president of production, said in a statement at the time. “Rachel is an excellent reporter, host and journalist, and we thank her for her many contributions to our NBA content.”
In the July 2020 recording, Nichols is heard suggesting that Taylor got her job hosting the marquee program NBA Countdown during the NBA finals because she is Black.
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“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,” Nichols said in the recording. “Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.”
