While Maria Taylor left ESPN in 2021 with her head held high and a nice new job at NBC Sports, her departure was anything but amicable.
Taylor, of course, was at the center of a huge controversy at the Worldwide Leader a half-decade ago that led her to leave the network. After she was elevated to host of NBA Countdown and ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage, Taylor became a target for the demoted Rachel Nichols, per alleged comments that the public only learned of because a fellow ESPN staffer secretly recorded and leaked them.
A rising star at ESPN at the time, Taylor was given the chance to anchor top NBA games after nearly a decade on SEC Network and other ESPN assignments. Taylor and Nichols split opportunities to replace Michelle Beadle on NBA Countdown starting in 2019, before Taylor was promoted during the league’s “bubble” season during the 2020 pandemic.
In a call with a popular sports industry PR adviser, Nichols allegedly expressed that Taylor did not deserve to “take” the Finals opportunity just because of ESPN’s “crappy record on diversity.” Nichols apologized on-air during an episode of The Jump, and both hosts left the network in 2021.
Now, Taylor is back as one of the faces of national NBA coverage as host of NBC’s studio shows. In an interview with new colleague Carmelo Anthony on his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Taylor revealed the extent of her emotional grieving process walking away from that golden opportunity at ESPN — and basketball coverage as a whole — when she went to NBC.
“When I left, I really thought I was leaving basketball on the table. And that’s the sport I love,” Taylor said.
“I just really thought I was never going to cover it again unless it was Team USA. Then to flash forward now and we’re five years into this and I have an opportunity to be back in the league, that’s what I was working toward. And I had reached it and I lost it. So I think sometimes, things can be removed out of your life for a reason, because this is what was on the other side of it, and this is where I needed to be. So for me personally, it’s like the biggest full-circle moment I could ever ask for.”
Taylor left immediately after the 2021 NBA Finals to join her new NBC Sports teammates in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics. While it was a great landing place, Taylor leaned heavily on friends and colleagues to get through the emotional turbulence of the fallout with ESPN.
From NBC’s Olympic basketball analysts LaChina Robinson and Vince Carter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Taylor revealed that she found solace in the people around her.
“I cried every day in Tokyo,” she said. “There was a healing process that you have to go through after something like that. To me, that was traumatic. But being on the other side of it now, I’m like, ‘I get why you have to walk through fire sometimes.’ It just happens. And it feels so much better now. I feel looser, I feel freer, I feel more confident in everything I do.”
Taylor has previously revealed to her fans just how emotional her experience was leaving ESPN, but it is clear she has discovered newfound comfort being back in the anchor chair covering the NBA.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.