Rachel Nichols, who was removed from her $2 million ESPN contract, once had Michael Jordan call her out

Michael Jordan is as big a media personality to meet as anyone, and when Rachel Nichols met him for the first time, she was a little shy.

The Bulls legend has accomplished what NBA players dream of doing in his career. Six championships, six Finals MVP’s, five NBA MVP’s, an obvious Hall of Fame induction, and much more has cemented Jordan’s legacy as the greatest NBA player of all time.

So, why was his career so confusing? Well, he retired thrice in his career, to give you some context. If that sounds weird to you, that’s because it is. His first retirement was by far the most surprising as it came only nine years into his career, and he had just started to win at the highest level, coming off of his first three-peat.

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Michael Jordan called Rachel Nichols out once

Rachel Nichols came under fire for comments she made about African American reporter Maria Taylor reportedly taking over her job.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in a leaked audio file. “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.”

Rachel Nichols’ contract with ESPN was terminated after those comments. She had a year left on her deal which was worth somewhere in the range of $1 million to $2 million.

Early in her career, Rachel Nichols had the chance to be in a press conference session with MJ, and perhaps because of how big a name he was, she was shellshocked a bit.

“I didn’t talk for like the first three or four practices that we covered,” Nichols recalled on Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All the Smoke podcast.

“You’ve got this group of media around you with their little stuff, and I was just trying to not be noticed and learn and do. And by like the fourth time he just looked at me in the middle of a press clump of people and was like, ‘What, you don’t speak? Do you not speak?’ I was like, ‘Oh OK,’ and then asked my probably ridiculous question at that point because I was so nervous.”

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