It’s been almost a year since Rachel Nichols lost her ESPN job but Michelle Beadle of The Athletic still gushes about it.
As the Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Finals, veteran reporter Rachel Nichols found herself in the spotlight because of a racial scandal at ESPN.
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Within a few days, everything changed for the Suns, the Bucks, and the top sports media network. ESPN replaced their sideline reporter after the comments she made to her African American colleague Maria Taylor came to light after a leaked voice recording.
“If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your 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.” Nichols said on the leaked tape.
Later in August, ESPN didn’t hesitate in parting ways with one of the top names in sports media and The Jump host for good.
And since then, Michelle Beadle who was the original host of “The Jump” has come forward to say some wild things about both her former colleague and LeBron James, who she claims forced ESPN to fire her.
Michelle Beadle said “Karma is a Bit*h” in Rachel Nichols row
Beadle left ESPN in 2019 after a contract buyout and had not returned to TV until last year when she joined the San Antonio Spurs’ broadcast team as a special correspondent for the NBA 2021-2022 season
A few weeks ago, she came as a guest on the Ariel Helwani podcast where she talked about her former colleague Rachel Nichols’ exit from ESPN and still looked happy about it like it was yesterday.
She started to talk about it with a crisp line, “karma is a b***h,” Beadle said. “Well, that’s nothing! That person [Rachel Nichols] that’s what she does and that was nothing.”
Pointing towards Rachel being the sole reason for Beadle’s and plenty of other people’s exit from ESPN, Michelle accepted that she felt Nichols got what was long overdue.
“She did still to me like she is the one that did all the stuff. She is the one that plays that game. And to watch the both of them [Nichols and Maria Taylor] sort of engaged in the media wars, look, I don’t think either one of them came out looking great. It was just not a great look for either one of them, but it’s not shocking to anyone in that business. When I heard the names and who did what, it was yeah, that’s about right.”
ESPN’s ratings never dropped after her firing, but Nichols hasn’t found a job ever since, making it clear who lost the most in that shameful racial scandal. Meanwhile, Malika Andrews took the advantage of the situation and has become a top name in the industry within a year.
