ESPN Hires Shams Charania To Run Point As Senior NBA Insider After Adrian Wojnarowski Exit

ESPN has hired The Athletic‘s senior NBA Insider Shams Charania for the same role at the worldwide sports network.

Fittingly, Charania broke the news himself on X on Monday, the move coming after longtime ESPN lead NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski said last month he was exiting the network to become general manager of the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure.

Wojnarowski had been at ESPN since 2017. Before that he worked on the NBA beat together with Charania at Yahoo! Sports.

“I am honored to join ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA Insider,” Charania wrote today. “I can’t wait to be part of an incredible group of colleagues at ESPN and serve the sports audience worldwide.”

Later in the day Monday, ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show confirmed on-air that Charania has landed at ESPN; Charania had already changed his job title in his X bio to ESPN Senior NBA Insider.

In addition to The Athletic, where he regularly broke NBA scoops to his 2.4 million X followers, Charania has been an NBA insider and analyst for Stadium, the multi-platform sports network. He worked at Yahoo! Sports from 2015-2018.

ESPN was looking to get its team in place as the NBA is gearing up for its 2024-2025 regular season, which tips off October 22. The league launched its official preseason Friday.