{"id":585236,"date":"2021-07-07T14:06:15","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T18:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=585236"},"modified":"2021-07-07T14:06:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T18:06:18","slug":"nba-commissioner-adam-silver-talks-espn-turmoil-defends-rachel-nichols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-talks-espn-turmoil-defends-rachel-nichols\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Talks ESPN Turmoil, Defends Rachel Nichols"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnba-commissioner-adam-silver-talks-espn-turmoil-defends-rachel-nichols%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=585236&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-487318575.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>As ESPN continues to deal with the fallout from the leaked video of Rachel Nichols citing \u201cdiversity\u201d for Maria Taylor being given the nod to host pregame and postgame shows for the 2020 NBA Finals, NBA commissioner Adam Silver took time out of his Tuesday press conference to address the turmoil at the worldwide leader in sports.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to The New York Times, Taylor has refused to work with Nichols over the past year after hearing Nichols air her frustrations to Adam Mendelsohn \u2014 longtime advisor to LeBron James \u2014 in an inadvertently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/espn-caught-in-controversy-after-leaked-recording-shows-reporter-complaining-about-diversity-promotions\">recorded<\/a> conversation between the two in July 2020.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world \u2014 she covers football, she covers basketball,\u201d Nichols <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/04\/sports\/basketball\/espn-rachel-nichols-maria-taylor.html\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span>&nbsp;in the July 13, 2020 conversation, now leaked. \u201cIf you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity \u2014 which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it \u2014 like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The news broke over the weekend, forcing Nichols to apologize on Monday\u2019s airing of \u201cThe Jump,\u201d one of ESPN\u2019s most popular basketball shows. The apology was apparently insufficient as Nichols was removed from her NBA Finals sideline duties, and Tuesday\u2019s episode of \u201cThe Jump\u201d was canceled.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"10.185185185185\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEWS: ESPN canceled Rachel Nichols&#8217; The Jump for today, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n<p>The plan is to have it on tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndrewMarchand\/status\/1412504097245310977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 6, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>Silver was asked about the situation at ESPN \u2014 a major partner of the league \u2014 and he expressed disappointment in the way it\u2019s been handled.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s particularly unfortunate that two women in the industry are pitted against each other,\u201d Silver <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/2021\/07\/06\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-espn-rachel-nichols-maria-taylor\/7883650002\/\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cBoth Rachel and Maria are terrific at what they do. They work extraordinarily hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI would have thought that in the past year, maybe through some incredibly difficult conversations, that ESPN would have found a way to be able to work through it. Obviously not,\u201d Silver continued. \u201cI should also say, too, that these issues are not unique to ESPN. As I said, the league is working on its own issues in terms of doing a better job with diversity. It\u2019s not just in sports, but in companies around America, there\u2019s a reckoning going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Silver was asked about the progress that the league has made in hiring more black and women coaches, and while Silver said there has been obvious progress, he feels there is still work to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn terms of black coaches, obviously we\u2019ve seen positive developments there in terms of the number of vacancies that are being filled. I will say, not unlike other organizations that are dealing with diversity issues, this is something that requires daily attention,\u201d Silver <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-discusses-state-of-the-league-as-the-finals-open\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cAgain, positive movement in that direction but we\u2019re not going to rest on our laurels there. Back to the point about data, it\u2019s something that\u2019s a regular part of our team meetings, of our board of governors meetings now. Not just in the coaching ranks, but across the league and making sure teams are focused on it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While Silver criticized ESPN\u2019s handling of the situation, his comment that the league is going out of its way to hire for \u201cdiversity\u201d plays into the conversation surrounding Nichols\u2019s comments. He says that the NBA is focused on adding more black coaches and general managers to its ranks and that the league is not alone in attempting to address what they see as an issue. Was it incorrect for Nichols to assume the same issues were being addressed at ESPN when she was passed over for a job?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Nichols is being blasted for her comments and losing opportunities for them as well, but Silver\u2019s statement on the league\u2019s emphasis on hiring a more diverse workforce gives credence to Nichols\u2019 complaint.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To his credit, Silver did defend Nichols in the press conference, saying that everyone deserves to be judged on their body of work, not on one moment.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in ESPN, it\u2019s one thing to talk about the principles around diversity and inclusion, it\u2019s something else when it comes to somebody\u2019s specific job and how that\u2019s handled,\u201d Silver <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/2021\/07\/06\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-espn-rachel-nichols-maria-taylor\/7883650002\/\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned from dealing with these issues in the NBA is that they are incredibly complex. There\u2019s no magic bullets here, and they require a very labor-intensive effort of getting people in the room and working through these issues by talking a lot about them, and then talking even more about them, and creating a climate where people are comfortable saying what\u2019s on their mind where people are given the benefit of the doubt, especially long-term employees that are in good standing, that when they do make comments, that people recognize that people make mistakes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cCareers shouldn\u2019t be erased by a single comment. We should be judging people by the larger context of their body of work and who they are and what we know about them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Silver is absolutely correct in his comments regarding the backlash that Nichols is facing, but he doesn\u2019t run ESPN. Nichols is being punished for insinuating that diversity played a part in her being passed over for a job she is more than qualified to do, as companies around the country turn their focus to addressing \u201cdiversity issues\u201d in their workforce.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re not allowed to have it both ways. You can\u2019t yell and scream about the lack of diversity in a specific field, and at the same time get upset when someone points out that they may have lost out on an opportunity due to the increased focus on diversity.<\/p>\n<p>Pick a lane, because we all see the hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As ESPN continues to deal with the fallout from the leaked video of Rachel Nichols citing \u201cdiversity\u201d for Maria Taylor being given the nod to host pregame and postgame shows &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314175,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-487318575.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Talks ESPN Turmoil, Defends Rachel Nichols","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-487318575.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Talks ESPN Turmoil, Defends Rachel Nichols","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}