Jim O'Donnell: Third rails rule reporting of ESPN's Rachel Nichols-Maria Taylor divide
THE INK IS BLACK, THE PAGE IS WHITE and the matter involving Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor at ESPN is replete with enough third rails to make a hot-coal walker put on boots.
Long story short, Nichols has been taken off the sports network's coverage of the Phoenix-Milwaukee NBA Finals because of a phone call illegally taped last year in which she assertively addressed ambiguous parameters of ESPN's eternal quest for "diversity."
Nichols is White. Taylor is Black.
Taylor now sits center left on the ESPN / ABC "NBA Countdown," the pregame and halftime production blended into the Suns-Bucks thankful crescendo.
That's where she'll be Sunday night - alongside Jalen Rose, Jay Williams and the improbable Adrian Wojnarowski - when Devin Booker and Phoenix try to go up 3-0 at Milwaukee.
Nichols, 47, has apologized, apparently for being honest and pointing out that her contract with ESPN/ABC assured her of a prime slot on coverage of the NBA Finals.
She is spending her weekdays hosting "The Jump" on ESPN.
Taylor, 34, is a free agent on July 20. She has publicly stated she is seeking "Stephen A. Smith money." That, presumably, would mean a raise from her current estimated salary of $1M annually to something closer to Smith's reported $8M.
Good luck with that, although $3.5M now appears attainable.
Perhaps a séance communing the philosophies of Kahlil Gibran, Frederick Douglass, Phyllis George and Quincy Jones ("We Are The World") could settle the dust.
In the meantime, modern man's quest for the perfect median workplace "diversity" shall march on, hopefully not to end in gratuitous folly.
And Rachel Nichols should sue all entities responsible for the illegal taping and dissemination of the content of her private phone call.
GREAT NOTE FROM DAVE TULEY, a senior reporter at Vegas Stats and Info (vsin.com):
If a bettor caught the Cubs going bad at the right time two weeks ago, a $100 money-line wager on Game 1 of their recent 11-game losing streak rolled over through each subsequent defeat would have produced a gross win of $33,118 (plus the original $100).
The super psychic within would then have had to turn off the cabbage faucet before the inimitable Alec Mills sparked D. "Loss" Ross and the Flubbies to an 8-3 win over Philadelphia Wednesday night.
Tuley was pioneering modern sports betting insights in The Daily Racing Form 20 years ago. He's also as locally spawned as it gets - Glenbard North (Class of '84) and Northern Illinois ('88).
Those are the same touchpoints of upward matriculation as Daily Herald sports editor Mike Smith.
RECENT SPECULATION that sports Krugerrand Paul Sullivan of the depleted Chicago Tribune may expand his forays into media matters recalls a grand tale about the transcendent Gary Deeb - still the greatest American radio & TV columnist of all time.
In June 2000, an energizing editor at The Sun-Times dispatched an emissary to Deeb's hometown of Buffalo with an offer: The paper would pay the one-time "enfant terrible" $1,000 per-week for a single medium-length column on any topic he wanted - media or not.
Deeb was 54 years old and had flown through golden game-changing turns at The Trib (1973-80), The Sun-Times (1980-83) and WLS-Channel 7 (1983-95).
But he was easing into a contented retirement.
So, in the ambient swooshing of an approaching midnight at Niagara Falls, he told the insouciant messenger, "Thanks, but no thanks."
STREET-BEATIN':
ESPN's first "Sunday Night Baseball" ever to air on ABC will feature the White Sox-Cubs from Wrigley Field August 8. By then, Tony La Russa and his winning wounded should be drawing away in the AL-Central; Jed Hoyer will likely have a garage-sale clubhouse that looks more like a first-timers outing from "It's Just Lunch." ...
Two words if the pandemic-plagued Tokyo Olympics do indeed go on: "bad idea." NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus is telling media that "enhanced sound" plus cameras in the U.S. homes of family members of select athletes will amp up coverage. (Doubt it.) ...
As expected, ESPN is fast-tracking ex-Bears LB Sam Acho into its college football and NFL coverage this season. Vic Fangio loved the man; AOL Sports once designated him as one of "six NFLers with genius IQs." ...
Certain to send hearts pounding from St. Louis to Cedar Falls, "American Underdog" - a biopic about Super Bowl-winning QB Kurt Warner - is set for a December theatrical release. (Can "The Trent Dilfer Story" be far behind?) ...
Mike Campbell, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said he thinks Churchill Downs Inc. may apply for a single week of harness racing at Quad City Downs in 2022 to keep its "Twin Spires" advance deposit wagering license alive in Illinois. ...
And Scott Thomson, on the new shorthand for Jake Arrieta if the Stuart Margolin-lookalike ever makes it back to the mound for the Cubs: "J-Shelled."
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.