NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Defends Embattled ESPN Host Rachel Nichols, Wonders Why Network Didn’t Resolve Conflict Sooner

It all makes sense now! Adele‘s unexpected new romance with sports agent Rich Paul, 39, was apparently alluded to weeks before their outing at the NBA playoffs on July 17. In a May 31 interview with The New Yorker, Rich said that he was “hanging out” with a major pop star — and now it’s all but clear that he was talking about Adele, 33. “She was over yesterday,” Rich told the publication. He never referred to the “Hello” singer, or whomever he was talking about, by name.

ESPN. We will see if he stays that way or the thought of being a champion is just too great to suppress.Looking at the Suns’ perspective it is not ideal. They are down 3-2 and are on the road against a team who has only lost one home game all postseason.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor today’s finale of “Mind Wide Open,” the IGTV series and podcast hosted by Chris Cornell’s daughter, Lily Cornell Silver, she welcomes her mother, longtime Alice in Chains and Soundgarden manager Susan Silver. According to the announcement, Susan — who rarely does interviews — and Lily will talk about “the relationship between a parent and child with respect to the relationship between mental health and addiction, anxiety, the benefits of therapy and their own

ESPN.Antetokounmpo’s defense in Game 4 was nothing short of an all-time great performance and was one of the biggest reasons that the Bucks were able to even the series last night. Antetokounmpo alongside the amazing block had at least 3 key steals that led to easy points in transition to help the Bucks cut into the Suns’ lead.

CBS Sports, “we’re probably inching toward the closest game we’ve seen in this series.” Game 4 is set to tip-off at 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and is sure to be a must-watch game as the winner of that game will have all the momentum going into Game 5. 

In a memo sent to ESPN employees on Friday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro addressed what he called “nuanced and complicated personnel matters” related to “recent events.” Those events revolve around leaked comments made by one of the the network’s highest-profile female hosts Rachel Nichols, who is white, and another of the network’s highest-profile female hosts Maria Taylor, who is Black.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorESPN plans to drill deeper into issues of diversity and inclusion, going as far as to examine the exit interviews of recently departed employees, in the wake of a dispute that has engulfed two of the network’s basketball reporters, the chairman of the Disney-backed outlet told staffers in a memo.“Change takes time, and I ask for your partnership on this journey,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said to employees in the memo, which was circulated last week.

Will Thorne Staff WriterIn “Medusa,” the latest film from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira, the main character and a gang of her female friends don creepy white masks to attack other women in the street whom they deem to be “promiscuous.”Silveira draws amply from both fictional and real tales of women-on-women violence to portray a snake pit society where religion, toxic masculinity and right-wing politics intertwine in an all-too-familiar fashion.“Medusa” invokes the most famous

Bleacher Report, “Phoenix has put on two offensive clinics in this series. The first one resulted in Paul, Booker and Deandre Ayton combining for 81 points in a 118-105 Game 1 win.

Rachel Bilson is sharing some off-screen drama that took place on the set of . During the latest episode of , Bilson and Melinda Clarke's re-watch podcast, the 39-year-old actress revealed that the love triangle that played out on the teen drama was reflected in real life.Bilson starred on as Summer Roberts from 2003 to 2007.

Christopher Vourlias French distributor ARP has acquired the rights to “Fools,” an upcoming drama by Berlinale Silver Bear winner Tomasz Wasilewski (“United States of Love”). Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales brokered the deal.“Fools” is the story of Marlena and Tomasz, who are hidden away from the world in a small seaside town and have been in a happy relationship for many years.

UPDATE, 8:45: ESPN anchor Maria Taylor has finally spoken out in the wake of the controversy surrounding remarks made about her by fellow employee Rachel Nichols.

said NABJ president Dorothy Tucker.

A love triangle may have played out on-screen during season one of “The O.C.”, but according to Rachel Bilson, there was “tension” off-screen too.

On the day of the start of the NBA Finals, ESPN’s premiere daily NBA show was missing from its schedule. Instead, according to the New York Post, viewers who tuned in at 3 p.m., ET on Tuesday found the two-man team of Jalen & Jacoby, who are usually The Jump‘s lead-in. A subsequent Jump schedule spot on ESPNH2 at 4 p.m., ET was replaced by the network’s Highly Questionable.

NBA.com, Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer says that Giannis’ injury is “day-to-day” and had no other update about his status. “We’ll update it when appropriate.

PHOENIX -- ESPN has replaced Rachel Nichols as its sideline reporter for the NBA Finals following a report detailing critical comments she made about Black colleague Maria Taylor.The network announced Tuesday that Malika Andrews would handle that role for the series between the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks.Nichols, who is white, has been the sideline reporter for its top national games this season and for last year's NBA Finals.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorESPN had to devise a new game plan for the NBA Finals.The Disney-owned sports-media giant said it would move its veteran basketball reporter Rachel Nichols off sideline duties for the NBA Finals, slated to be broadcast tonight on ABC and feature the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Phoenix Suns, and utilize Malika Andrews instead as it grapples with new scrutiny over how it handled a bizarre leak of Nichols on video appearing to disparage last year’s decision to use

The New York Times reported on Sunday that several of the company’s top NBA analysts had considered boycotting this year’s playoffs over how ESPN handled the situation.After the video spread internally at the network and was later partially leaked by Deadspin, Taylor told ESPN execs that she had decided to not finish covering the NBA season.