One things for sure, Maria Taylor knew about the existence of the Rachel Nichols video at least since August of 2020.
Social media users did some digging on her Twitter account and came across a video that not many thought much of while the NBA was in the bubble in Orlando. Taylor was seated in her room with a message to Black women, but took a shot at Nichols without any of us knowing at the time.
“Hey, Black women…I just wanted you to know that you’re pretty dope. I don’t care what society tells you. They might tell you that your skins not pretty enough, that there’s not enough shade to match your make-up…that although all women make 82 cents to the dollar on White men, you make 62 cents.
They may tell you that you don’t deserve that promotion, even though you know you do. They may tell you when you get the promotion, that you only got it because you were Black, but we know that’s not true.”
“Don’t be humble, girl brag.”
As we know now, she was responding to a Nichols recorded audio which was leaked that heard her saying Black host Maria Taylor got the job of hosting the NBA Finals because ESPN was “feeling pressure” over diversity efforts.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
Nichols: So they said to me ‘Hey instead of hosting the NBA Finals, how about you do Doris [Burke, ESPN commentator]’s sideline reporter job for the NBA Finals?’ [pause] ‘Cause guess what that would clear the way for?
Mendelsohn: For her to do it full time.
Nichols: For Maria to do the hosting full time.
Mendelsohn: Yeah.
Nichols: So I have declined. I don’t know what their next move is, but they are feeling pressure because of…all of that, and I’m trying to figure out, like how to just…you know, my thing is, I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball.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.”
In a statement to the Times, Mendelsohn and Nichols insisted that their conversation was about frustration with the company culture at ESPN and not with Taylor.
Mendelsohn: “I don’t know. I’m exhausted. Between MeToo and Black Lives Matter, I’ve got nothing left.
Nichols: [laughs] Been thinking about it? And at like 2 in the afternoon three days from now you’re going to text the perfect Twitter thread.
Mendelsohn: You could actually generate a really interesting conversation about how it’s just so very white male for them to turn two women on each other to compete over the one spot that’s dangling over them.
Nichols: Right.
Mendelsohn: A broader conversation about all the spots that should be under consideration.
Nichols: There isn’t just one seat at the table for a minority of whichever version this week we’re trying to please.
Mendelsohn: If you think about it, this is precisely the problem we’ve been talking about for a long time now which is white men – it is an example of the one Black person in the boardroom [inaudible]…you don’t get to have a Black woman in a prominent spot and feel like “OK, the work is done.” And you certainly don’t get to say, “OK, we have a white woman, we have a woman in a critical seat, and now we’re going to put a Black woman in that same seat. The question is, what are the other seats that white males are in? That should be under consideration.
The leaked conversation almost had top analysts at the Worldwide Leader In Sports ready to boycott.