Former ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols has been hired at Showtime Basketball, the network said Friday, where she will work on content as a producer and host.
The network said Nichols will be on the basketball vertical and "contribute to a number of shows and projects from Showtime Basketball across multiple platforms."
Nicholls left ESPN earlier this year after being embroiled in controversy after an article appeared in The New York Times, when the newspaper published a recording of a phone conversation between Nichols and Adam Mendelsohn, which Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James was a longtime advisor. , Nichols was in the bubble covering the NBA at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In that conversation, Nichols praised co-star Maria Taylor, but also questioned her status on the network because of her track record with Variety.
Taylor also left ESPN and now works for NBC Sports.
Nichols said in a statement, "For more than 25 years, I've been fortunate to live my dream job with some of the best journalists in the business, and this new development agreement with Showtime Sports is the most comprehensive sport I've ever come across." gives the field." ,
"They've asked me to design, produce and host new sports programming across platforms, with Hall of Famers, multiple people with championship rings and an extremely creative team behind the camera. It's going to be fun."
Nichols also discussed what went on behind the scenes that led to him leaving ESPN on the All the Smoke podcast on Friday.
"Around the same time, I got a call asking Maria to host the NBA Finals and let me go back to being a sideline reporter," Nichols said.
"He insisted it was my choice, he didn't ask me to do it because it was in my contract. But he put a lot of pressure on me. I was told 'Well, you're not a team player. ..' What any woman in business knows is code, right? Women are supposed to be kumbayas, and team players, and helpers, and men are aggressive sharks, and all that?
"I felt like, 'Hey, I've worked for this job for so long, decades. I did everything that was asked. We did some great performances to get to the playoffs. And I'd rather do it. on."
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