ESPN Implosion

Where do you start on this? I've never seen ESPN to this level of animosity. An article from The New York Times put out a thing they found of footage of the sports channel's reporter, Rachel Nichols, from last year. When it came time to return and do the NBA stuff, she wasn't hosting Countdown. Instead, it was given to another reporter, Maria Taylor. A camera was on and Nichols vented about the network trying to make its case for diversity. I don't think she was upset about Taylor herself, but at the time it was recorded, you can get why consequences could happen. Some have defended her. Some have ripped her.

While I do think Nichols should be aware of her surroundings like everyone should, it makes ESPN look very fake. To be honest, I don't see anything special about her as a reporter. I think Taylor isn't special either. Not worth the supposed 8 million a year she is alleged to be demanding. I'd like to know who pulled the trigger to have Taylor as the host at the last possible moment. This does feel like a need to be "more diverse" for the wrong reasons. There's a way to do inclusion organically, but this was not it. Even for a guy like Stephen Jackson, who has a messed up mind and has said nasty antisemitism, has called ESPN out for that decision. That speaks to how bad they have handled things and why people are tuning out along with the political focus.

Nichols has done sports for a very long time. At least two decades worth.  I can sort of understand why she was bothered about getting the shaft. Taylor I only see do college sports, but has for almost a decade on the big stage after five years with the SEC Network. If you want to do this properly, you have to pass the torch in some manner. There was nothing necessary for ESPN to make a sudden change. Why not have both? For all the crying about lack of women and minorities, you get both of them together and maybe make them co-hosts. That would have been much better.

In the midst of this, reports are coming out now that Nichols has been replaced by reporter Malika Andrews for sideline reporting. Supposedly to put more focus on the Finals. In short term, maybe, but that draws more attention to ESPN and continuing to make themselves look bad with their intentions. Hopefully Andrews doesn't get berated all that much. But overall, the network's main NBA people stink to high heaven. You have Jay Williams with his take on the Boston Celtics coaching history and his "I was hacked" response getting shut down by almost everybody. While bad, it pales to Jalen Rose and his thoughts on Kevin Love making the Olympic team. It's not good, and that's just a small sample size.

ESPN needs to burn to the ground, rebuild and retool as a whole in terms of journalism, especially with their NBA people. We should be talking about what could be a good Finals for two teams who haven't had much experience in winning a championship. Instead, we're talking about political and racial pandering because a network think that's much more important than having intellectual discussion to matchups. There's a lot of work to be done to have diversity, but this ain't it. Continuing to shoot themselves in the foot makes them look worse. I don't know if Jimmy Pitaro can fix any of this, but he better think fast.