Maybe Nichols always deserved to be fired for her privately taped comments, in which she lamented about her perception of ESPN’s poor diversity record and the idea that executives — in the aftermath of the discussion on race after George Floyd’s death — were going to take away her contractually agreed upon job as the host of the NBA Finals and award it to Maria Taylor, who, unlike Nichols, is black.
“The rumors are accurate in terms of me wanting him off the show. Let’s get that out the way. Yes, I did [want him off the show],” Smith told radio hosts Ebro Darden and Peter Rosenberg.
“It wasn’t really about asking him to be off the show, it was about the fact that I knew that we, together, as far as I was concerned, was not a great partnership anymore and that was something that needed to change.
