About a month ago, Joy Taylor appeared on the Higher Learning podcast with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, making it clear she isn’t backing down from the noise around her—even if she didn’t call out Jason Whitlock by name.
“I am a f*cking gangster… It’s not always wise to talk. In fact, it can do you much more in the long term, to not talk,” Taylor said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foNmSAgulho
Whitlock fired back on his Fearless show this week, calling her attitude immature.
“I am going to speak truthfully about Joy. She’s a child. She’s got some clear identity issues,” he said, before adding that Taylor wrongly paints him as the problem. “She thinks I’m her problem because she has a very secular worldview.”
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Whitlock has been on her case for months. In January, when former FS1 staffer Noushin Faraji accused Skip Bayless, Taylor, and others of fueling a toxic workplace, he jumped in again. Faraji also alleged Taylor had an affair with network executive Charlie Dixon, a claim Whitlock used to belittle her career path, saying she stayed visible through “big cans and peanut butter skin.”
“I’ll Never Be the Same”: Joy Taylor Reflects on FS1 Scandal
Joy Taylor’s latest stop was Cam Newton’s Funky Friday podcast, where she spoke about how the fallout has shaped her life.
Six months removed from the scandal, she admitted the early days were brutal but says she’s finding her footing again.
“It’s been a unique experience for me in my life. I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life, but this one was different,” she explained. “My goal was to do a daily opinion show where my voice mattered as much as the men at the table. And I was able to do that at the highest level, at the network level.”
She went on: “But I’ll be a different person. I’ll never be the same. I know that for sure. How I’ll be different, I don’t know yet. It’s too soon. It’s too raw. And there’s still too much happening to know that. But I hope that I hold on to the best parts of myself because it’s really hard to do.”
Despite everything, Taylor pointed out she did reach the platform she always wanted. The ordeal, she said, forced her to be more mindful of the energy she allows around her and to guard her peace more carefully moving forward.
For more basketball content, click on Hardwood Heroics. Sabel Reyes can be reached through sabelreyes22@gmail.com. Other websites under the Sports Heroics umbrella are Gridiron Heroics and Wisconsin Heroics.
Sabel has been working as a field reporter for People’s Television Network (PTV), mainly about the Philippine Basketball Association since 2016 and has been elevated to Executive Producer for sports in 2022. Aside from being on top of the Philippine sports scene, she is also a running enthusiast. You can also follow her on X at @SabelReyes2 and Instagram at @msabelreyes.
