ESPN Turbulent Conflict Between Two Top Female On-Air Talents

ESPN finds the company in a major conflict between two of their top woman analysts, Maria Taylor and Rachel Nichols, one black and the other one white. This conflict started last year before the NBA Finals, Maria Taylor was given the position to host the NBA Countdown. Rachel Nichols was in the NBA Bubble to provide interviews. During an evening when she thought the remote mike was off, she had a conversation with Adam Mendelsohn, PR guru who also advises LeBron James. Nichols complained to Mendelsohn about Taylor receiving the hosting job for the NBA Finals because ESPN was trying to make amends for their issues with diversity within its lineup of on-air talent. Her private conversation was recorded from the ESPN servers and was internally shared with the predominantly African American employees.

As a result of the leaked audio, one employee was suspended for submitting the recording to Maria, but this individual did not remove the recording from the servers. In addition, Maria Taylor refused to work with Rachel Nichols. To resolve this issue, last year, ESPN had Rachel's interviews recorded and incorporated within the show hosted by Maria. ESPN executives thought this issue was resolved; however, someone leaked the audio to the New York Times and the story became a big problem for ESPN again. Now, it’s unclear who leaked the story, but many people believed it game from Maria Taylor's camp because her contract will expire July 20, 2021, and she is currently in negotiations for a new contract. It has been reported by many sources that ESPN last summer offered her 5 million dollars a year which was a significant increase from her 1 million dollars annual salary. However, she declined the offer and then recently, ESPN has offered her only 2 million dollars per year. With the recent publicity, Rachel Nichols offered an apology on her show The Jump and ESPN has decided to replace Rachel Nichols as the sideline reporter with Malika Andrews.

Throughout this whole ordeal, Maria Taylor hasn't said a word, but it has been reported that she has not accepted Rachel's apology. This story has been an embarrassment for the media conglomerate and is the topic of discussion for many news outlets. The question remains if ESPN will extend Maria Taylors’ contract before the July 20th deadline. If not, well it appears Rachel Nichols will be hosting depending on if the Finals go to six games.

Now to be honest, I've watched ESPN religiously, and I was very surprised that Maria Taylor received the hosting job for the NBA Countdown show. When I think about the women at ESPN affiliated with their NBA shows, I first think of Doris Burke who is usually an analyst on the NBA games; Rachel Nichols, who host the Jump; Ramona Shelburne who is an NBA insider, and NBA reporter Jackie MacMullen. Recently Malika Andrews has also been providing reporting for the NBA on ESPN. In the past, Lisa Salters was a prominent NBA sideline reporter for ESPN; however, she has been mainly covering the NFL. Truthfully, I really do not think of Maria Taylor because she primarily works football games both college and the NFL. So, I was shocked when she was given the post. Don't get me wrong, I find Maria to be eloquent, graceful, and knowledgeable and from my own personal observation she has done an excellent job. Unfortunately, Rachel Nichols is being touted as a racist or a fraud because she supports diversity in public but not behind close door.

In listening to the audio that was released, Nichols sounds like someone that was frustrated that she didn't receive the spot because she claims it was written in her contract. I truly do not think she said anything disparaging about Taylor's abilities, but she did imply that Taylor received the job because she was black, as white people would call it “reverse discrimination”. However, as an African American, I'm quite aware how black people have been bypassed and received less money than their white counterparts. Trust me I can speak about this because it happened to me, when my boss brought in her friend to a position which was considered a lower ranked position than mine, and she was making four thousand more than me. I stomached it for a while, but I eventually left the organization and never looked back.

Personally, I think ESPN handled this situation poorly last summer, if indeed Nichols had this job in her contract, then they should have honored her contract making her the Finals host and use Taylor as the sideline reporter. Furthermore, as an individual that work over 30 years in health information management, I always protected patients' confidential medical information so ESPN should have had a much better tracking system to determine who recorded the audio from their servers. Finally, ESPN needs to fix their problem with diversity within their executive level positions because it is not with their on-air talent. It's a shame that this conflict involves two strong women. In an industry that is dominated by males, both these women need to reconcile and support each other.