Rachel Nichols on Showtime Basketball, Sports – Focus on verticals of pay-TV channels and streaming services.
Nichols will serve as host and producer for Showtime Basketball, which produces video and audio podcasts, documentaries and documentary programming, among other programming.
Vertical Programming includes the series Kevin Garnett: Anything Is Possible and SpringHill The shut up and dribble . Its talent includes the likes of Garnett, Paul Pierce, JR Smith and Josiah Johnson.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to spend over years in my dream job with some of the best journalists in the business, while This new development agreement with Showtime Sports provides me with the broadest playing field to date,” Nichols said in a statement. “They asked me to produce, create and host new sports across platforms, working with Hall of Famers, multiple people with championship rings, and the super creative team behind the camera. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”
Veteran NBA Reporter and host leave ) ESPN In January, her comments from a private phone call were published in the New York Times , sparking
Nichols asked ESPN colleagues for advice during a conversation with Adam Mendelsohn, advisor to Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and James’ agent Rich Paul NBA Reporter Maria Taylor was selected to host NBA Countdown during the NBA Finals, the channel’s main pregame and postgame show.
“If you need to get her to do more because you’re stressed about your chronically poor diversity record — by the way, I know from the female side — —Like, go ahead,” Nichols said. “Just look elsewhere. You’re not going to find it from me or take my stuff. I just want them [ESPN] to go somewhere else — it’s in my contract, by the way; this A job is on my written contract.”
The conversation took place during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and Nichols and other ESPN talent weren’t working in the channel’s studio. Nichols called from a hotel in the NBA “bubble” he set up. It also comes in the wake of protests related to the murder of George Floyd, and many companies, including Disney, have responded to the racial reckoning it sparked.
Unbeknownst to Nichols, an ESPN employee recorded her comment and shared it internally before it appeared in Times.
Nichols then to Taylor and ESPN President Jimmy apologizes Pitaro for sending a memo to employees promising a “deep study” of the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
“We respect and acknowledge that we have a variety of feelings about what happened and the actions we took,” Pitaro said in Times memo reads story. “The details of what happened last year are confidential, nuanced and complex personnel matters. But please understand this – our story is much better than what you saw this week.”
Finally, Nichols was removed from ESPN’s NBA coverage , her daily show The Jump was cancelled. Taylor then left ESPN for NBC Sports , where she contributed to coverage of the Olympics and the NFL.
Nichols will first talk about her departure from ESPN in an episode of Showtime Basketball’s video podcast with Matt Barnes And all the smoke with Stephen Jackson will be released on Friday.
And at Showtime, she will once again be able to produce content for basketball fans familiar with her past work 1234981619 year.
“We are delighted to welcome Rachel Nichols to the Showtime basketball family,” said Brian Daly, senior vice president of sports programming and Showtime Networks. content. “Rachel brings unparalleled journalistic credibility, familiarity with our roster and a work ethic that takes us to another level.”
