Former ESPN executive Norby Williamson wanted to ‘make SportsCenter great again,’ and for that, Jemele Hill sees him as her own personal Donald Trump.
Hill, a columnist, Trump critic and erstwhile SportsCenter host, opened up on her time at ESPN during an appearance on The Rick Strom Show.
An important figure at ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut campus for the better part of 40 years, Williamson left the network in 2024 after current network star Pat McAfee accused him of attempting to sabotage his daytime talk show.
Williamson penned a grateful letter to colleagues on his way out the door, making no mention of the disgruntled host or his claims and the New York Post later reported his departure did not come at the behest of McAfee.
Hill, too, claimed to the victim of another sabotage by Williamson. Only in the case of SportsCenter’s doomed 2017 ‘SC6’ reboot, Hill says Williamson was determined to ‘de-blackify’ a show hosted two African Americans – herself and Michael Smith.
‘It just seemed very intentional and purposeful that he wanted to make SportsCenter great again,’ Hill said, giving a hat tip to Trump.
Norby Williamson
Michael Smith and Jemele Hill interview Michigan State basketball head coach, Tom Izzo
Hill claimed Williams removed the set’s photos of track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ famed ‘Black Power’ salute at the 1968 Olympic as well as pictures of Smith and Hill alongside Barack and Michelle Obama. He also scratched intro music from DJ Jazzy Jeff, according to Hill.
And while Hill has long been accused of politicizing sports coverage, she insisted SC6’s forays into politics were always directly connected to the subject at hand.
‘If there was some political or social issue, it definitely was tied to sports and it definitely was in the news,’ Hill said. ‘This is something that a lot of black people know, which is your presence is just political. Whether you want it to be or not. So really, what they were trying to say was, ”where’d they get these two black people from and why are they on the 6 o’clock SportsCenter?”’
Hill was suspended by ESPN that year for calling Trump a ‘racist’ and left the network a year later. She’s now a columnist for The Atlantic in addition to hosting several podcasts.
SC6 was ESPN’s attempt to update the 6pm hour of the network’s trademark show, which helped establish the Worldwide Leader as a cultural force in the 1980s and 1990s. The network pulled the plug on the project in 2018.
DailyMail.com’s attempts to contact Williamson for a response have been unsuccessful thus far.
