The Shams–Woj rivalry is a rivalry between

sports reporters ''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports ...

Shams Charania Shams Charania ( ; born April 1, 1994) is an American sports reporter for ''The Athletic'' and ''Stadium'' where he covers the NBA. Early life Charania was born in Chicago to Pakistani Ismaili parents who had immigrated to the U.S. in the 19 ...

of ''

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'' and Adrian Wojnarowski of

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, the two leading

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) insiders. The rivalry has been propelled primarily by NBA fans and media since 2017, regarding which reporter is first to break NBA news on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Wojnarowski mentored Charania at

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, and they became competitors after Wojnarowski left the company.

Background

In 2007, Wojnarowski joined

as a full-time reporter, becoming the website's national NBA writer and the most prominent reporter in breaking NBA news. Charania idolized Wojnarowski in high school and joined him at Yahoo! Sports in 2015, at age 21. Wojnarowski, who served as his mentor, touted Charania as the best young basketball reporter in the world, in a tweet that has since been deleted. In 2017, Wojnarowski left Yahoo! Sports for

, and Charania – his leading competitor – joined ''

'' and

Stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the following year.

Rivalry

Following Wojnarowski's departure from Yahoo! Sports in 2017, his purported competition with Charania in being the first to break news about the NBA on

, including trades, signings, draft picks and injuries, gained significant attention. NBA fans and media often keep score of each reporter's performance, particularly during the NBA draft,

trade deadline In professional sports within the United States and Canada, a trade is a sports league transaction between sports clubs involving the exchange of player rights from one team to another. Though player rights are the primary trading assets, draft p ...

and free agency. In 2022, the rivalry was described as the "most intense rivalry in the NBA" by ''

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''. Reporter

Frank Isola Frank Isola (February 20, 1925 – December 12, 2004 in Detroit, Michigan) was an American jazz drummer. Isola was born and raised in Detroit and was heavily influenced by Gene Krupa. He played in the U.S. military during World War II (1943–45 ...

called it the "only real rivalry left in the NBA" due to friendliness among players. Agent Rich Paul has characterized the rivalry as beneficial for the NBA. It has also been acknowledged by players, including Patrick Beverley. The success of Wojnarowski and Charania has discouraged other reporters from attempting to break news.

Relationship

Wojnarowski and Charania have not publicly acknowledged their rivalry and have declined to comment about their relationship. In 2021, four years after they stopped working together, NBA reporter Ethan Strauss alleged a falling-out between the two and that Wojnarowski expresses contempt for Charania. In 2023, Reeves Wiedeman of ''

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'' magazine likened their rivalry to a

cold war The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. NBA reporters and officials have compared the relationship between Wojnarowski and Charania to that of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' characters Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Their companies, ESPN and ''The Athletic'', discourage their employees from publicizing tweets by Charania and Wojnarowski, respectively.

References

{{NBA rivalries National Basketball Association rivalries Individual rivalries in sports Sports journalism