Michelle Beadle is offering more detail on just how far LeBron James was willing to go to get her out at ESPN. Last month, she revealed that James had “tried to get her fired” by ESPN. On Monday, she offered more details to Ethan Strauss.
She said it was “weird” to realize that the NBA superstar had “any input” in her life. Even more disheartening was that James apparently had thought out in detail what the network should do.
“He had a person at the network who he wanted,” Michelle Beadle said on The House of Strauss podcast. “He wanted her to be the host of [NBA Countdown]. He does not like me, and I honestly have stopped trying to figure out why.”
According to Beadle, James’s dislike of her goes back a long time. It has affected the way people around James treat her as well.
“I’ve been around Maverick Carter,” Beadle said. “He refuses to shake my hand.”
Michelle Beadle never named the person James supposedly wanted to take her place as host of NBA Countdown. Ryan Glasspiegel speculates that it was Rachel Nichols, who eventually took over after Beadle exited ESPN in 2019.
It is one of two questions that are likely to go unanswered. LeBron James will almost certainly never acknowledge that he wanted Michelle Beadle fired. He definitely wouldn’t acknowledge if he had a detailed plan for how he wanted ESPN to replace her.
Beadle did acknowledge that there was at least some frustration with the woman handpicked by James and his team.
“For me personally, it was always a woman-on-woman thing. Could we just be more cliche? That is just a played-out lame thing people assume, and for it to actually come to fruition is just a disappointment.”