The MVP winner for this 2025-26 NBA season was to be announced exclusively on Prime on Sunday night, but ESPN’s Shams Charania spoiled all the fun. Charania announced earlier in the day that Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had won MVP, and that didn’t go down too well.
A whole lot of backlash came Charania’s way, and he defended breaking the story during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday.
“A part of me is like, what are we talking about here?” Charania said. “The other part of me is like, for me, when I get news, when I get information, if I vetted it like I did late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, when I have news 100%, no matter how big, no matter how small, and in this case obviously very, very big accomplishment, very big news around the NBA for the NBA, for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being the 14th player in NBA history to be the back-to-back league MVP… Since Stephen Curry, the only guard to be back-to-back.
“He’s the only player to go back-to-back, period, since Nikola Jokic,” Charania continued. “There’s a list of accomplishments here. I mean, he’s in rarified air. So, this is a massive story, and when I get it, I vet it, and then my job is to report the news. So that’s all I focus on. That’s what I wake up thinking about. That’s what I go to sleep thinking about. I feel the responsibility.
“And like you said, Pat, this isn’t the first time necessarily, but it’s not going to be the last time where I’m just going to try to do my job to the best of my ability,” Charania added.
Charania’s job as an insider is to break stories. We have seen so many insiders over the years put out news that teams or players would have wanted to share themselves. It is not ideal, but to go at Charania as if he’s the first person ever to do this is absurd. Ultimately, his obligations are only to ESPN.
You wondered how the NBA Nightcap crew on Prime would handle the situation when it came time to announce the winner, and they went at Charania for spoiling it. Former NBA star Blake Griffin had a simple yet stern message.
“What are we doing, man?” Griffin said. “It’s Sunday, Shams. Go to brunch, you nerd. Come on.”
Charania wouldn’t have taken that too kindly to that comment, but ESPN’s Malika Andrews seemingly decided to troll him over it. When he appeared on NBA Today on Monday, she brought up brunch when introducing him.
“Let’s say hello to our senior insider, Shams Charania, who joins us fresh off brunch,” Andrews said.
“Let’s say hello to our senior insider, Shams Charania, who joins us fresh off brunch…” 😏 https://t.co/ve5GnM20VE pic.twitter.com/EJVS8FWQyk
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 18, 2026
That was hilarious. Charania doesn’t seem to have gotten a heads-up there, as he didn’t even crack a smile. Having shots fired at him is probably getting to him a bit.
Notably, Charania had been going at it for a while with the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo over trade reports. He clapped back at the Bucks after head coach Doc Rivers was fired and made it clear that his reporting about Antetokounmpo was on point.
Charania isn’t going to change his ways, so you better believe there are going to be more such incidents in the future.
