Rachel Nichols, a top ESPN anchor covering all things NBA, was captured talking to LeBron's publicist last year about how to stop a Black female anchor from taking over her job at the Finals... and it seems like the fallout has been devastating.The New York Times published Sunday's bombshell report detailing the drama at ESPN over the past year. This was after an ESPN employee secretly recorded Nichols speaking to Adam Mendelsohn. The video was leaked and spread like wildfire.New York Times video contentNichols was filming in a hotel room as the NBA Playoffs got underway last May. It appears that she forgot her camera and the camera was recording while she was having this conversation with Mendelsohn. The feed went back to ESPN, where someone captured the damning words exchanged.The Times' first clip shows Nichols talking to Mendelsohn, a PR/comms expert, about how ESPN approached her to do sideline reporting on the Finals in that year. This is a task Nichols shares with Maria Taylor, an African-American rising star.You can see the conversation. Nichols says that she turned down ESPN's offer because it would allow Maria to host full-time. This would have effectively pushed Nichols out of sight. She clearly wanted to keep her job.Nichols then says of Maria, "If she needs more things to do, because you feel pressure about your poor long-term record on diversity -- which I know personally from both the male and female sides -- go for it." She says, "Just find it elsewhere." It is not possible to take it away from me.In a second audio snipped, Mendelsohn can be heard giving advice to Nichols on how to frame the dynamic of ESPN pitting two women against each other in an effort to gain leverage even though it could potentially be at Maria’s expense. He also shared some thoughts about #MeToo, BLM and said he had nothing left and was exhausted. This sounds like what Nichols and Mendelsohn considered to be phony pandering/appeasing at executive level.After the video/audio was shared among ESPN employees, it reached the top ranks. The NYT reports that the network has been in damage control mode since then, with fears that Nichols might sue and that Taylor might quit.
