Shams Charania, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander credit: Get Up, Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
By Qwame Skinner on

On Friday, the Associated Press reported on the NBA’s plan to announce the league’s MVP award, largely viewed as a three-horse race between Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic, and Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, on Sunday evening during Prime Video’s pregame show. Turns out, fans didn’t have to wait quite that long. ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania announced on Sunday afternoon that Shai-Gilgeous Alexander had won the league’s highest individual honor for the second consecutive season.

“Multiple sources tell me this morning that Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been voted as the NBA’s most valuable player,” Charania said on SportsCenter after initially breaking the news in a post on X. “This means he’s won back-to-back MVP awards.”

Unfortunately for Charania, he found himself in the crosshairs of some heavy criticism from a corner of the internet that felt he had jumped the gun, robbing Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder fans of what should’ve been a special moment. Others, such as Fox Sports’ Geoff Schwartz, felt that Charania’s reporting undermined the league and would never have been allowed in the NFL.

However, Royce Young, the content lead for Oklahoma City’s basketball operations and a former ESPN reporter, approached the situation with the nuance of having been on both sides, and acknowledged that Charania was simply doing the job the Worldwide Leader pays him to do.

Young went as far as to remind the public that ultimately, Charania is “a newsbreaker,” adding that the insider “was told news—pretty big news—so he broke it.”

This isn’t the first time recently that Charania has faced public criticism for breaking news. There was similar frustration after he reported on the WNBA’s new CBA, after WNBA reporters camped outside of the negotiations for days. In both scenarios, however, much like Young alluded to, Charania broke the news that he was made privy to, and ESPN employs him primarily because of that access. Any problems with how news is disseminated are not the fault of the Charania but rather a media landscape that prioritizes insiders and breaking news.

About Qwame Skinner

Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.

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