There has been a firestorm around Rachel Nichols and a recorded audio of her having a phone call with the advisor to LeBron James where she complained that Maria Taylor had taken over hosting duties for the NBA Finals last year.
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols reportedly said on the July 2020 video. “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.”
Michelle Beadle appears to be loving the drama. The former host, who quietly departed ESPN after accepting a buyout in 2019, had a telling reaction when she posted the below laughing GIF on Twitter.
Beadle, who was replaced by Nichols and Taylor in that NBA Countdown role after being bought out by the company, announced that she was boycotting the sport of football after the Zach Smith scandal at Ohio State. That was a huge issue for the host of a show geared around the football season in many ways.
Beadle was eventually bounced to NBA Countdown, but once Jimmy Pitaro took over for John Skipper as ESPN president, she and the network reached a buyout settlement.
She was paid handsomely in her final deal with the company when she received $5 million per year to help launch Get Up with Mike Greenberg and Jalen Rose.