Rachel Nichols and DeMarcus Cousins launch NBA podcast for Showtime Basketball
Showtime Basketball is expected to shut down at the end of the year, but a transition to CBS could be in the works.
Showtime Basketball is expected to shut down at the end of the year, but a transition to CBS could be in the works.
"All the respect for building such a powerful entity on a name and doing it well. So yeah, people are going to listen."
"This is a reality show! This isn’t 60 Minutes, it’s not journalism."
Undisputed has some more notable figures coming in.
"Money for NBA teams, the Orlando Magic's money that they donated to Ron DeSantis, doesn't come from a magic tree elf. It comes from the work of players on the court."
"Not only does he have a personal history, but more importantly...the team has a history that they’re battling with here."
“I think it’s an awesome opportunity for her to come home, in a sense...I want our network to have a national look and feel, and I think Rachel really plays into that theme.”
"They stressed it was my choice, they weren't telling me to do this, because it was in my contract. But they were putting a lot of pressure on me. I was being told 'Well, you're not a team player.'"
Nichols' show was canceled in August. She's now reached a settlement with ESPN over the time that was left on her contract.
"We respect and acknowledge there are a variety of feelings about what happened and the actions we took. The details of what took place last year are confidential, nuanced and complicated personnel matters."
"There has not been one Black person that I can think of right now that has not gone through hell at ESPN."
Nichols served as the sideline reporter for this broadcast team during last year's Finals and this year's Western Conference Finals, as well as for most regular-season broadcasts they did this season (including their Christmas Day game).
Implicitly or explicitly saying someone got a job because of their skin color is obviously wrong, but also harmful.
This certainly doesn't feel like the end of the conversation.
"I woke up to HUNDREDS of Tweets YELLING AT ME and I had no idea what was happening!"
On the first day of this year's playoffs, the NBA Countdown cast discussed not appearing on that show over restrictions on reporter interviews that were seen to promote Rachel Nichols, the latest fallout from Nichols' 2020 call where she offered criticisms of Maria Taylor.