ESPN Removes Rachel Nichols From NBA Programming In Further Fallout From Controversial Leaked Audio

Once a prominent on-air personality with ESPN and its coverage of the NBA, it appears Rachel Nichols contract with the Disney-owned sports brand will end quietly.

First reported by John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, ESPN has removed Nichols from all NBA programming and will cancel her weekday afternoon show The Jump. Nichols has one-year remaining in her contract with ESPN, but according to Ourand, there are no current plans to use her on-air at this time.

The news comes more than two months after ESPN pulled Nichols from their NBA Finals coverage. Set to report from the sideline during the championship series, leaked audio of Nichols was released, where she implied her colleague Maria Taylor was given the NBA Finals hosting job because she’s Black. ESPN quickly responded to the leaked audio by pulling Nichols from their Finals coverage, but she remained as host of The Jump.

The controversial recording was more than a year old when it was released, and featured audio of a private conversation Nichols had with sports PR executive Adam Mendelsohn.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world, she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols privately told Mendelsohn last July. “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 myself know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You’re not going to find it from me and taking my thing away.”

When the audio was released earlier this summer, Taylor was in the middle of a contract dispute with ESPN. She ultimately left the network immediately after the NBA Finals and joined NBC in time for their coverage of the Summer Olympics.

Earlier this month, ESPN announced Holly Rowe would take over Taylor on her coverage of College Football, but they have not named a replacement for NBA Countdown. One thing that remains clear, the job won’t be going back to Nichols.