Rachel Nichols (journalist)

Nichols was born Rachel Michele Alexander. She grew up in Potomac, Maryland, where she graduated from Winston Churchill High School.[2][3] While attending the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, she had summer internships at USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times and The Washington Post.[2] One of Nichols' earliest assignments was to attend Chicago Bulls practices as a freelance newspaper reporter amidst the team's first three-peat. After a few media sessions where she took notes and did not ask questions, Michael Jordan called her out to speak. The two began to talk on a regular basis after the exchange and Nichols credited the experience in growing her skills as a journalist.[4] In 1995, she graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.[5]

Nichols began her career as a sports journalist in the 1990s, first writing for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel sports page (1995–1996) before covering the NHL's Washington Capitals for the Washington Post (1996–2004).[2] She joined ESPN in 2004, where she became a regular part of SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown, as well as a regular on the network's NFL and NBA coverage.[6][7] Nichols was also a correspondent for E:60[8] and worked as the sideline reporter on a number of Monday Night Football broadcasts.[9]

In 2013, she left ESPN for CNN and began hosting Unguarded with Rachel Nichols in October of that year. The program would change from a regular series to an occasional special by October of the subsequent year.[10] Nichols was widely praised for her tough questioning of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the wake of the Ray Rice scandal[11] and likewise for confronting boxer Floyd Mayweather on his history of domestic violence.[12] During this period, Nichols also worked the sidelines for the NBA on TNT program in both regular season and playoff games as well as regular appearances on Inside the NBA.[13]

In 2016, Nichols was recruited back to ESPN by then-president John Skipper. She pitched "a conversation about basketball" as a daily program where former players, reporters and associates of the NBA community discuss the league. Tracy McGrady joined The Jump when it debuted in February 2016. A sit-down interview with Nichols became a benchmark for active players, and Sports Illustrated called The Jump "TV's smartest basketball show".[14][15] She also became a recurring guest-host on the podcast Pardon My Take (2016–present), as well as on the TV show Pardon the Interruption.[16] Prior to the 2019–20 NBA season, she was named host of NBA Saturday Primetime and the NBA Finals on ABC.[17]

Plans to have The Jump serve as the Finals pregame show were scrapped amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, when NBA Countdown with host Maria Taylor was made the Finals' pregame and halftime show.[18] During the 2020 NBA Bubble, an employee at ESPN's Connecticut headquarters used a cell phone to record Nichols in her hotel room without her knowledge. The recording included a phone call with LeBron James' advisor Adam Mendelsohn, which was reportedly 30 minutes long, taken from a continuous video feed connected to ESPN's servers. The employee texted the recording to ESPN employees and executives, as well as Deadspin.[19][20] Deadspin declined to publish the video, citing that the employee may have committed a crime.[19] Nichols was the sideline reporter for the 2020 NBA Finals and hosted its championship trophy presentation.[18][21]

Four minutes of edited footage from the phone call leaked to The New York Times before the 2021 NBA Finals amidst ESPN's contract negotiations with Taylor. Nichols suggested that ESPN's decision to choose Taylor to host the NBA Finals was due to Taylor's race, a video that was widely circulated at ESPN and resulted in several of her colleagues considering a boycott of programming, including one prominent analyst who labeled Nichols a "bad teammate".[19][22] In response to the article, ESPN removed Nichols from sideline reporting for the 2021 Finals, however it stated that she would continue to host The Jump.[23] NBA players including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Vince Carter and Chris Paul appeared on The Jump over the following days.[24]

After the NBA Finals, ESPN canceled The Jump and removed Nichols from its programming.[25][26] At the time, she had over a year remaining on her contract.[27][28] As Connecticut and Florida are two-party consent states for lawful recording of phone calls and conversations, Nichols was reported to have a strong legal case against ESPN.[29] In January 2022, Nichols settled with ESPN and left the network.[30]

Nichols has been named one of Esquire's "Women We Love"[31] and one of The Hollywood Reporter's "10 Most Powerful Voices in Sports Media".[32] She was also named to Sports Illustrated's "Twitter 100" in 2013 and 2014[33][34] and to Sports Illustrated "MMQB 100".[35] In 2014, Sports Illustrated called Nichols "the country's most impactful and prominent female sports journalist".[36]

Nichols married film and music video director Max Nichols,[37] son of film and stage director Mike Nichols, in a Jewish ceremony in Venice in 2001.[1] Her mother-in-law, the stepmother of Max Nichols and the last wife of Mike Nichols before his death, is Diane Sawyer.[38] Nichols and her husband have twin daughters.[39][40] She also has one older brother and one younger brother.[41]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rachel Nichols (journalist).

• Rachel Nichols at IMDb