ESPN Cancels Nichols: What's Next For NBA Coverage?
After being a key member of ESPN's NBA coverage as the host of "The Jump" since 2016, the network has moved on from her in part of an overhaul.
Sports Business Journal's John Ourand was first to report of Nichols' removal from "The Jump" and ultimately from ESPN's NBA coverage as a whole.
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It comes with little surprise that ESPN has opted to move on from Nichols in the NBA coverage department after her leaked comments about Maria Taylor surfaced.
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in an audio-taped revelation. “If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your (ESPN) 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.”
But ... they did.
Nichols was quickly pulled from sideline reporting duties during the NBA Finals after her comments reached the public.
It's not just the involvement of Nichols that ESPN will be changing in its NBA coverage. "The Jump" will run for the next few weeks without her involved
There is an overhaul of ESPN's NBA coverage on the way with senior VP David Roberts leading those efforts.
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Among the rumored plans is to create a show with a similar format as NFL Live starring Malika Andrews, as Sports Business Journal also reported.
The coverage ESPN has provided of the NBA has been criticized by a wide faction of viewers for being too focused on narratives without enough emphasis on actual analysis of basketball itself. There is 'right answer'' here. But ESPN has decided that parting ways with the talented Nichols its its "right'' way.
