Rachel Michele Alexander was born to Rachel cook and Ronald Jacobs. Growing up in Potomac, Maryland, she became a fan of sports during her youth, saying it felt like watching a live storybook movie with heroes and villains, and an ending not yet written. Nichols married film and music video director Max Nichols, son of film and stage director Mike Nichols, in a Jewish ceremony in Venice in 2001.
Nichols’ first job was as a sportswriter for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel covering the University of Miami football team and Miami Dolphins. She transitioned to broadcasting in 2004 when ESPN hired her as a reporter. Turner Sports and was announced to anchor the network’s first sports-related program in twelve years. She was called a “revered player in the space” and considered a ‘big get’ for CNN. 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. 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.
One year later, 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. Nearly seven weeks after the NBA Finals, ESPN canceled The Jump and removed Nichols from its programming. At the time, she had over a year remaining on her contract. Rachel Nichols Doesn’t Think Asking Tough Questions Is Scary at All”. Express lane to Bristol: Why so many D. WCHS alumna Rachel Nichols inspires student journalists”.
