Rachel Nichols, ESPN‘s star anchor who does all things basketball and the NBA as of late, is under fire this weekend after a secret recording was made public.
In the recording, first published as part of a bombshell report by the New York Times on Sunday, Nichols (pictured in the inset, above) can be heard talking to a man named Adam Mendelsohn, who is LeBron James‘ publicist, about Maria Taylor — another anchor and up-and-coming TV personality at ESPN.
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The recording, which is now going viral online and across social media, was grabbed last May during the NBA Playoffs — which, at the time, were condensed and limited to a site in Orlando, Florida due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Apparently, Nichols had been working and filming in her hotel room that May when she accidentally left her camera on to surreptitiously record the conversation with Mendelsohn, after it was sent back via feed to the ESPN studio. During the conversation, Nichols claims the network approached her with the idea of doing sideline reporting for the Finals that year, as opposed to her hosting gig at the desk — a task that they wanted to apparently give to Taylor (pictured in the main pic frame, above), who is Black.
In the convo, Nichols says she declined the offer, opting to keep her job — which, OK, fine, we’d all do that. But here’s what else she said about Taylor, and diversity at ESPN (below):
“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.”
Oof.
Definitely not a great look.
In a second audio snippet, then, Mendelsohn goes on to see that he had “nothing left” and was “exhausted” after both the #MeToo Movement and Black Lives Matter went full force during 2020.
Dude, seriously?! Ugh…
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Here’s the full, leaked exchange (below):
Wow…
FWIW, Taylor’s contract is up at the end of this year, and it’s possible she may leave the network entirely after this episode. (And also very understandable.) The NYT also reports that Taylor has consistently declined to respond to Nichols’ attempts to make peace. Wow!
What do U think about this, Perezcious readers?? Sound OFF with your take on all this down in the comments (below)…
[Image via ESPN/YouTube]
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