ESPN’s Maria Taylor functions from the sidelines during an NCAA college football game in between Miami and also Florida in 2019. ESPN introduced Wednesday that Taylor is leaving the network.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
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Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
ESPN’s Maria Taylor works from the sidelines during an NCAA university football game in between Miami and Florida in 2019. ESPN announced Wednesday that Taylor is leaving the network.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
ESPN host Maria Taylor has announced she is leaving the sports network just weeks after remarks by an associate suggesting that Taylor was advertised due to the fact that she is Black became public.
Taylor and also ESPN introduced the separation in a declaration Wednesday, claiming “that after much conversation, an arrangement on an agreement expansion could not be reached.”
According to ESPN, Taylor’s final appearance for the network was Tuesday night’s NBA Finals newscast.
In early July, on a recording of a conversation by ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols. In the July 2020 recording, Nichols, who is white, is listened to suggesting that Taylor got her task holding the marquee program NBA Countdown throughout the NBA finals since she is Black.
“If you need to provide her more points to do due to the fact that you are feeling stress concerning your lousy longtime record on diversity– which, by the way, I recognize personally from the women side of it– like, go for it,” Nichols claimed in the recording. “Simply discover it elsewhere. You are not mosting likely to discover it from me or taking my thing away.”
She was talking with NBA celebrity LeBron James’ long time advisor Adam Mendelsohn as well as James’ representative Rich Paul.
Nichols from her task after the remarks ended up being public.
She later asked forgiveness on the show The Dive, saying she valued her ESPN coworkers as well as noting that she was “deeply, deeply sorry” for “unsatisfactory those I harm, especially Maria Taylor.”
In a declaration shared by ESPN, Taylor thanked her coworkers and friends “that counted on me, motivated me, pressed me, and also lifted me up.”
“Words are insufficient to reveal my boundless recognition, and also I want to make them pleased,” Taylor included.
Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN as well as Sports Web content, commended Taylor’s abilities and her work at the network.
“There is no uncertainty we will miss Maria, yet we stay determined to remain to construct a deep and competent ability roster that extensively mirrors the athletes we cover and also the followers we serve,” he claimed in a declaration.