Who is ESPN’s new chief NBA insider? Shams Charania that’s who

For years ESPN’s frontman for the NBA world has battled it out with The Athletic’s own newsbreaker for the title of supremacy which is precisely why the fact that the latter is about to replace the former brings with it a sense of irony.

Shams Charania will take over for Adrian Wojnarowski

Just last month, Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN’s long-time news breaker and the man widely considered to be the go-to guy for everything NBA shocked the Sports world by announcing his retirement. It wasn’t long after that his now-former ESPN colleagues began to report that Wojnarowski had agreed to join the St. Bonaventure basketball program as the general manager. Wojnarowski had been with ESPN since 2017

Then, as you can imagine, the speculation about who would take his place began and with that, we come to the present where the network has seemingly made its choice about who will fill Wojnarowski’s shoes. According to an announcement from Shams Charania on Monday, he is in fact that guy. “I am honored to join ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA Insider,” Charania wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I can’t wait to be part of an incredible group of colleagues at ESPN and serve the Sports audience worldwide.”

Charania has effectively been a media-free agent since his contracts with The Athletic, Stadium, and FanDuel expired at the end of the summer. It was widely speculated that Charania would take over the ESPN role and perhaps it makes sense as he is Wojnarowski’s former Yahoo Sports protégé, which is to say there is a relationship between the two men, something perhaps makes for a smoother transition. Regardless, the decision has been made and it’s now Shams Charania who will be taking the NBA reins at ESPN.