Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas has a job lined up for Joy Taylor after her recent firing from Fox Sports.
During a Monday, July 14, YouTube livestream, Arenas expressed his desire to hire Taylor on his popular sports podcast Gil’s Arena. “Joy’s a great host. I know we’re looking at her for the football side,” he told viewers. “We’ve been behind the scenes talking to her for the last year.”
The athlete went on to name LeSean McCoy, Paul Pierce, and Keyshawn Johnson as other potential talent he is seeking to join the show. “I can tell you this. As [an] underdog, we better move on some of them,” Arenas shared. “We can’t just look at this and be like, ‘Eh.’ Because let’s just say, Shannon [Sharpe] decides to get Keyshawn, Shady McCoy to Nightcap. … If Pat McAfee grabs just one of them, that’s a different show.”
He continued, “It’s some moves that need to be made because these guys are going to go somewhere and they are going to get a home. And that will change the landscape of shows. I’m already on it as soon as I’ve seen it.”
News broke on Monday that Taylor has been fired from Fox Sports following the cancellation of her show Speak. Shows such as Breakfast Ball and The Facility were also cut, and will reportedly be replaced with new programs, the details of which have not been announced.
Taylor, a Fox Sports mainstay since 2016, was let go six months after she was embroiled in a legal controversy with former Fox Sports hairstylist Noushin Faraji. In addition to accusing the network’s executive vice president, Charlie Dixon, and host Skip Bayless of sexual misconduct and battery, Faraji alleged that Taylor previously slept with Dixon and Emmanuel Acho to get her jobs on Speak and Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.
Faraji further claimed that Taylor told her Dixon would “force himself on her” when he was “no longer useful to her” and accused Taylor of bullying her in the workplace after a falling out. Additionally, Faraji said Taylor once told her to “get over it” after confiding to her that Dixon allegedly touched her inappropriately.
Taylor, for her part, addressed the controversy in a June episode of The Breakfast Club radio show. “I have felt a lot of different emotions. I think it’s a grief process when anything like that happens,” she said. “I’ll say, I’ve been through a lot of traumatic things in my life. A lot. And I think any time you go through a trauma or a grieving period of something, you can’t decide who you are when it’s happening. And that’s been the biggest thing for me.”
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network‘s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.