ESPN’s basketball coverage has undergone some serious changes over the last few weeks. After Adrian Wojnarowski announced he was leaving to take over as the general manager for St. Bonaventure basketball and the network decided to lay off Zach Lowe, ESPN decided to hire Shams Charania, the NBA insider for The Athletic who was a free agent.
It wasn’t a surprising move considering Charania’s reputation for being the best in the business now that Woj retired. However, the two have had a long and tumultuous relationship dating back to when Wojnarowski mentored Charania at Yahoo — there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to their rivalry.
Now that Woj is out of the game, though, it appears that things have settled between the two. During an appearance on The Jim Rome Show, Wojnarowski wished Charania the best of luck, and revealed that Charania sent him a text after he left ESPN.
“Shams texted me after I announced my retirement, and you know, what I told him is what I would say today, that I hope he has as fulfilling and as rewarding of a career as I’ve had,” Wojnarowski said. “And I certainly wish that for him, and he’s right about the incredible group of colleagues that he’s going to find at ESPN — the best of the best, incredible reporters, on-air talent. For me, that was always the best part of working at ESPN, were the colleagues who elevate you. You’re around the best of the best. And that was true on the NBA, and that was true being around [Adam] Schefter, and [Pete] Thamel, and [Jeff] Passan, and those guys. So, wish him the best, and he’s got a great team around him at ESPN. I miss those guys already, but I’m still talking to those guys a lot.”
Whether or not Charania is going to donate to St. Bonaventure basketball sometime soon remains to be seen.