Over the last handful of years, a majority of NBA news has been broken by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski or The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The two were teammates at Yahoo and dominated the NBA news cycle before going their separate ways and becoming competitors. Since then, there has definitely been some friendly competition from the two to be the first to break all of the NBA’s biggest stories.
That competition came to an end this offseason, however, when Wojnarowski announced that he was retiring from his news-breaking job at ESPN to become the general manager of the basketball team at his Alma Mater, St. Bonaventure.
With Wojnarowski no longer in the picture, ESPN needed to find a replacement and it appears they have done so as Charania took to social media to announce that it will be him:
I am honored to join ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA Insider. I can’t wait to be part of an incredible group of colleagues at ESPN and serve the sports audience worldwide. pic.twitter.com/sBDFGIpkb6
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 7, 2024
This move doesn’t come as a huge surprise as Charania’s contract at The Athletic was notably up, putting his future with the company in jeopardy. Charania is the only newsbreaker on Wojnarowski’s level so if ESPN wanted to replace him with the best, then this hiring was a no-brainer.
It will be interesting to see how much their coverage changes, if at all, and if any other media members can step up and become a rival to Charania similar to the way Wojnarowski was.
Shams Charania names Kobe Bryant as his GOAT
Despite growing up in the Chicago area, Shams Charania is too young to have witnessed a majority of Michael Jordan’s career, so he recently named Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as his GOAT.
“So for me growing up, when MJ won his sixth championship I was four years old. So it’s hard for me to you know, people are like watch the YouTube videos, watch the games over, like it’s an experience. I feel like the greatest of all-time is an experience, right? For me growing up, Kobe was someone that I watched very closely and like, you know the Mamba Mentality, killer instinct. I feel like some of those attributes, I felt like as a young minority, parents from Pakistani background, I felt like I could apply some of that in my daily life. You know the killer mentality and like, just go get it-ness every single day. So for me, that was something that I gravitated towards.”
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!