Rachel Nichols Pulled Off All ESPN NBA Programming

The reverberations of a racially sensitive conversation from 2020 have come back to bite ESPN's Rachel Nichols in a staggering development today, as she has been removed from all of the network's NBA programming, including the cancellation of her daily show, The Jump.

BREAKING: ESPN has taken Rachel Nichols off of all NBA programming and will cancel her weekday afternoon show “The Jump,” per @Ourand_SBJ pic.twitter.com/n7WCKzYf2n
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) August 25, 2021

The Sports Business Journal broke the news today, and ESPN senior VP of production, David Roberts, insisted that the decision was "mutual".

The move comes just one month after an audio recording of Nichols from 2020 was released, in which she questioned why a female black reporter, Maria Taylor, was given Nichols' regular hosting spot for the 2020 NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble.

In the recording, Nichols suggested that the reason Taylor was chosen over her was only due to ESPN's "crappy longtime record on diversity."

After the explosive recording went public, Nichols apologized profusely, on-air, and to anyone else who would listen. Her show, The Jump, had been allowed to continue over the past month, but it appears that her efforts at contrition were to no avail, given today's decision.

Nichols tweeted out her thanks to her crew on the show, and suggested that we haven't heard the last of her.

Got to create a whole show and spend five years hanging out with some of my favorite people ❤️ talking about one my favorite things 🏀 An eternal thank you to our amazing producers & crew - The Jump was never built to last forever but it sure was fun. 😎
More to come… pic.twitter.com/FPMFRlfJin
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) August 25, 2021