Promising NBA insider Shams Charania joins The Athletic

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NBA insider and writer Shams Charania announced on Tuesday on Twitter and Instagram that he is joining The Athletic and Stadium, two popular sports media outlets in the US, in August.

“I am excited to announce I am joining The Athletic and Stadium as the lead senior NBA Insider/Writer and Analyst later this month... I’m excited to join the talented people at both The Athletic and Stadium, two places with tremendous enthusiasm, opportunity for growth and determination to cover the league. Both are hungry and ready. So am I,” wrote Charania.

Later, both The Athletic and Stadium posted messages welcoming their newest member. At the age of 24, Charania is not an NBA player but a reporter. What made his move one of the biggest stories of the day?

The Athletic welcomed Shams Charania on Twitter. /Screenshot from Twitter

It's been less than two years since Charania graduated from college. He began reporting on the NBA's Chicago Bulls for ChicagoNow when he was just 17 years old. In 2012, Chris Reina from RealGM gave him a new job writing news and analysis. Soon, Charania extended his work into breaking news about the NBA.

Starting from Mike James’ signing of a 10-day contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, the young man moved to bigger news step by step. His ascent continued in 2014 with the exclusive report of the transfer of Luol Deng, who was then still an All-Star player, from Chicago to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The story put Charania on the radar of Adrian Wojnarowski, king of breaking news in the NBA. “Big-time story break by the best young reporter in business, @ShamsCharania. This kid is still in school. He's a Parker-Wiggins combo,” tweeted Wojnarowski, who praised Charania by comparing him to a combination of the two most promising up-and-coming rookies in the league.

Charania's first, big, exclusive piece of breaking news: Luol Deng's transfer to the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Chicago Bulls. /VCG Photo

In September 2015, Charania joined Wojnarowski at The Vertical of Yahoo Sports and started a new chapter in his career. In the summer of 2016, he reported on Dwight Howard joining the Atlanta Hawks, DeMar Derozan staying with the Toronto Raptors and Luol Deng becoming a Laker, becoming a key news breaker in the league.

In 2017, when Charania graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with his degree, his mentor Wojnarowski left Yahoo for ESPN, becoming his rival. Though the two reporters had equal shares of breaking news about the NBA that summer, 49-year-old Wojnarowski showed his dominance by bagging most of the first-hand transfer news on the 2017-18 NBA trade deadline.

The same story repeated itself in June at the 2018 NBA Draft when Wojnarowski was restricted by a new league rule that barred him from releasing the selection results of the teams before Commissioner Adam Silver announced their decisions. Instead of using the word “select,” the ESPN expert turned to over a dozen replacement phrases, such as “locked in,” “has a laser on” and “unlikely to resist.”

Will Charania become the next Adrian Wojnarowski? /Screenshot from Twitter

Though he took two big losses, Charania is still seen as one of the best NBA reporters in the US. Considering he's only 24, there is every reason to believe that he is on the way to a bigger and more successful career.