Maria Taylor is leaving ESPN after failing to reach a salary agreement with the sports network before her contract expired.
Taylor, who had been with ESPN since 2014, taped her last segment with ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” on Tuesday night. Her contract expired on Tuesday.
Taylor and ESPN discussed contract negotiations for a year before she departed. The network originally offered her $5 million before the Covid pandemic shut down the country in 2020.
Last month ESPN offered Taylor $3 million – three times her salary at the time.
Taylor was virtually unknown until Rachel Nichols catapulted her into the national spotlight.
The New York Times published an article detailing a secretly recorded phone call made by colleague Rachel Nichols griping about Taylor’s diversity promotion.
Nichols, who is white, was upset at losing the 2020 NBA Finals hosting gig to Taylor because she was Black.
Nichols said:
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball. 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.”