Rachel Nichols Caught Complaining to LeBron James Advisor About ESPN Favoring Maria Taylor Due to Race

Rachel Nichols and LeBron James are making headlines again. Sort of. The NBA Finals will start in a few days and ESPN deals with a huge controversy. Nichols’ rant was the last thing ESPN needed right now. Things look really bad for the network.

In July 2020, Nichols had a phone conversation with Adam Mendelsohn. Her conversation with LeBron’s longtime adviser was caught on tape and we were able to hear every bit of it. The host couldn’t hide her frustrations about fellow host Maria Taylor. The latter is a Black woman and she was covering the 2020 NBA Finals instead of Nichols.

“Nichols discussed her career on a phone call on July 13, 2020, with Adam Mendelsohn, the longtime adviser of the Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and James’s agent, Rich Paul,” wrote Kevin Draper of the New York Times. “Nichols was speaking with Mendelsohn to request an interview with James and his Lakers teammate Anthony Davis, whom Paul also represents. During the conversation, she also sought advice from Mendelsohn because she believed her bosses were advancing Taylor at her expense.”

Rachel Nichols didn’t get to LeBron James

Her comments made people talk and the details she mentioned raised eyebrows.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in July 2020. “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.”

Cameras caught everything without the host being aware of it.

“I just want them to go somewhere else — it’s in my contract, by the way; this job is in my contract in writing,” Nichols told Mendelsohn minutes after saying that ESPN was feeling pressure about racial diversity amongst its staff.”

The conversation happened in Orlando, Fla. Yes, they were inside the bubble. An ESPN staffer discovered the footage and ESPN is dealing with a huge problem right now.

Mendelsohn issued a statement about his role in the conversation.

According to him, “Maria deserved and earned her position.” He added that Nichols has to respect the fact that Maria deserves the position because of her great work. Mendelsohn explained that both hosts shouldn’t be forced into the zero-sum game by ESPN.