Adam Silver responds to ESPN’s inner turmoil involving Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor: ‘It’s particularly unfortunate’
NBA Finals participants.
But in his media availability before Game 1 between the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, Silver also chimed in on ESPN dealing with inner turmoil involving NBA anchors Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor.
“It’s particularly unfortunate that two women in the industry are pitted against each other,” Silver said. “Both Rachel and Maria are terrific at what they do. They work extraordinarily hard.”
The New York Times obtained a leaked recording of a phone conversation during last year’s NBA bubble between Nichols and Adam Mendelsohn, the advisor of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. Then, Nichols expressed frustration that ESPN assigned Taylor to last year’s NBA Finals and stated it was in her contract that she would have those responsibilities. After praising Taylor, Nichols argued that ESPN did so amid pressure to improve its racially inclusive work-place practices.
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in an audio excerpt published by the Times. “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.”
Nichols has continued to host ESPN’s “The Jump” show this season while Taylor has hosted “NBA Countdown.” While Taylor’s contract is set to expire in three weeks, ESPN replaced Nichols with Malika Andrews for sideline duties for the NBA Finals. The Times report also said that ESPN suspended the digital video producer who told the network’s human resources department she shared the video with Taylor. The producer, a Black woman, was suspended two weeks without pay and has since left the company.
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“I would have thought that in the past year, maybe through some incredibly difficult conversations, that ESPN would have found a way to be able to work through it. Obviously not,” Silver said. “I should also say, too, that these issues are not unique to ESPN. As I said, the league is working on its own issues in terms of doing a better job with diversity. It’s not just in sports, but in companies around America, there’s a reckoning going on.”