Shams Charania Is Joining ESPN To Replace Adrian Wojnarowski

With the NBA season just two weeks away from beginning, the league’s biggest network partner still has some major uncertainty in its NBA coverage team.

ESPN has still not announced their broadcast team plans for the 2024-25 season, as JJ Redick’s departure left a void on the top team alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke. There are a handful of names on the potential replacement list for Redick, but going with a two-person team of Burke and Breen is also an option if they’d rather wait until TNT’s crews become free agents.

On the written and podcast side, ESPN stunned basketball fans when they laid off Zach Lowe, who is widely regarded as the best NBA writer and podcaster anywhere, which seemed to indicate their priorities will be on the TV side. They also are currently without a top newsbreaker after Adrian Wojnarowski’s sudden retirement to go work for his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. There were a handful of names floated to replace Woj, from internal candidates like Brian Windhorst to external options like Shams Charania or Chris Haynes.

Ultimately, ESPN opted to bring in the biggest name besides Woj in the world of NBA newsbreaking, hiring Charania to a new deal that will bring him on board, as his deal with The Athletic and Stadium were set to run up. Naturally, it was Shams who broke the news of his own signing.

Charania was once Woj’s understudy at Yahoo before becoming his primary newsbreaking rival in recent years. Now, he takes over for Woj at ESPN and figures to be a regular on the network’s various NBA programming. There were a number of options ESPN was reportedly considering, including having some of their newsbreakers from other sports, like Jeff Passan and Adam Schefter, take on the NBA. That may have been some negotiating on their part to try and take some of Shams’ leverage away though, as he was always the clear top choice, and ultimately they brought him on board.