Thursday effectively marked Shams Charania’s first day as an ESPN employee.
And when it came to his debut on First Take, ESPN’s new Senior NBA Insider wasted little time proving his worth, breaking not one, but two stories during his first few minutes on the show.
“This is my first time on your show, I do have news for you to start my segment, my First Take career,” Charania told Stephen A. Smith. “I have news for you: 15-year NBA veteran Danny Green tells me that he is retiring from basketball. He is one of four NBA players ever to have championships with three different teams; 2014 with the Spurs, 2019 with the Raptors, 2020 with the Lakers. He shot 40 percent [from 3-point range] for his career, All-Defensive Team. He is retiring, he told me that. And this obviously, for him, we wish him nothing but the best. He does have some ventures, he’s going to be doing media. He has multiple other off-court ventures he’s going to be focusing his time on.”
In terms of NBA offseason news, this might not have exactly been the Lakers drafting Bronny James or the the Knicks acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns, but credit Charania for not showing up emptyhanded. And mere minutes later, he dropped yet another ShamsBomb — one that especially piqued Smith’s interest.
“The Knicks, they needed a [center],” Charania said of New York’s acquisition of Towns. “And a lot of that is because Mitchell Robinson — and Stephen, I don’t want to break your heart so early — but I’m told he will be out for the remainder of the calendar year in 2024.”
“I knew you’d bring me bad news, Shams!” Smith, a diehard Knicks fan, interrupted. “How long you been here? Three minutes and you’re bringing me bad news already?”
“It might be bad news on the front end, but he is aiming to make his return [in January],” Charania continued.
Again, these aren’t necessarily the type of stories that are going to lead SportsCenter or even warrant a push alert from the ESPN app. But the fact that Charania was able to break two stories in his first three minutes on one of the network’s flagship shows remains nothing short of impressive.
It also provides some insight into what Charania will bring to the table that his predecessor, Adrian Wojnarowski, didn’t. While Woj may have been the NBA’s preeminent news-breaker, he often prioritized doing so on social media over television. Meanwhile, it took Shams all of a few seconds to showcase the ability to do both.
[First Take]
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.