Shams Charania

Shams Charania re-upped with The Athletic earlier this month, though at the time there was no word on whether or not he’d be doing the same with Stadium, his other outlet.

NBA insider Shams Charania has chosen to re-sign with The Athletic instead of hitting the free-agent market. It was reported earlier in August that Charania’s contracts with The Athletic and Stadium were up at the end of the month, and Charania told Complex Sports on Monday night that he’s staying with The Athletic.

“I’m thrilled to be staying and look forward to continue growing with a company that is still so hungry and motivated,” Charania told us.

The 26-year-old “declined comment about his future with Stadium,” according to Complex Sports.

Today, Stadium announced that they have a new deal with Shams, which will see him in an expanded role across platforms.

From their release:

At 26 years old, Shams has already established a reputation as an elite, well-respected news-breaker within the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Since joining Stadium in 2018, Shams has been utilized both on-camera and on social media. Shams has been integral to Stadium’s core programming lineup, including NBA Trade Deadline specials, NBA Draft live specials, NBA Free Agency specials and Stadium’s weekly NBA show “Inside the Association.” Moving forward, Stadium will further its work with Shams across the vast collection of Sinclair-owned properties.

“The Sinclair Broadcast Group regional sports networks and Stadium couldn’t be more thrilled to keep Shams Charania as a part of our family and broadcasting community. Throughout our work together, we’ve watched Shams quickly excel as one of the premier journalists in our industry,” said Sinclair Broadcast Group President of Local Sports Steve Rosenberg. “We have big plans for Shams across our sports portfolio and we’re excited to start that process immediately.”

Sinclair, of course, now owns the former Fox RSNs, some of which still have local NBA rights. That’s the most likely avenue for an expanded role for Shams, and it’s also presumably a big reason why he’s staying.

Here’s Shams himself, again from the release:

“Since the day I arrived, the teams at Stadium and Sinclair have demonstrated to me an incredible amount of passion, creativity and professionalism,” said Charania. “After talking at length about our future together, the decision to stay was an easy one to make and I’m thrilled to be able to continue to call Stadium my home.”

So, after some speculation that he could be leaving one or both of his outlets, Shams will instead continue on as before: breaking news and writing at The Athletic, doing on-camera work for Stadium. Just more of it.

[Stadium]

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.