{"id":1940552,"date":"2026-05-18T00:07:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1940552"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:07:49","slug":"prime-studio-show-pokes-fun-at-espns-shams-charania-for-preempting-nba-mvp-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1940552","title":{"rendered":"Prime studio show pokes fun at ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania for preempting NBA MVP announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Taylor Rooks and Blake Griffin, the host and a panelist on the Amazon Prime pregame studio show, got in a few digs at ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania for reporting the news that was supposed to be announced exclusively on Prime: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would win the NBA MVP award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charania, the lead ESPN reporter, sent out a tweet at 9:50 a.m. ET<\/a> that Gilgeous-Alexander won the award, citing multiple sources. ESPN published a news story at 10:15 a.m. ET, and Charania also joined SportsCenter to reveal the news.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Steve Nash, a fellow panelist on the Prime pregame show, officially announced Gilgeous-Alexander as the winner at around 7:45 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cJust to be clear, the official announcement is happening here,\u201d Rooks said before Nash\u2019s announcement. \u201cDirk (Nowitzki) and Steve, you all both won MVPs, but I don\u2019t remember Shams spoiling it back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast chuckled before Griffin cut in with some deep NBA lore.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are we doing, man? It\u2019s Sunday, Shams,\u201d Griffin said with what appeared to be mock seriousness. \u201cGo to brunch, nerd. Come on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin is likely referencing how Charania, in the early days of Twitter and well before his rise as a top league newsbreaker, would constantly tweet about going to lunch.<\/p>\n

\n

“It’s Sunday Shams go to brunch.”<\/p>\n

\u2013 @blakegriffin23<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/y4gxBVUZam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) May 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the voting on the MVP and other postseason awards had to be submitted before the start of the playoffs, the league traditionally waits until the opportune moment to announce the winners on the pregame shows of its media partners. Several of the other awards, including the Defensive Player of the Year and the Rookie of the Year, were presented on NBC earlier in the playoffs. The league announced Friday that it would have Prime\u2019s pregame show unveil the MVP winner before Sunday\u2019s Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

Many fans noticed that the top reporter at ESPN, the longest-tenured league media partner, reported news that spoiled the exclusivity of Prime, which, like NBC, is one of the league\u2019s new TV partners.This is the first year of the league\u2019s new 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal with the three networks. No media outlet had reported on any of the other postseason awards before they were presented.<\/p>\n

However, Royce Young, a former ESPN reporter who is now a member of the Thunder\u2019s front office, said Charania was simply doing his job. \u201cDon\u2019t blame Shams,\u201d Young wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cBlame whoever told him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP award for the second straight season, earning 83 of 100 first-place votes to beat out Nikola Joki\u0107 and Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor Rooks and Blake Griffin, the host and a panelist on the Amazon Prime pregame studio show, got in a few digs at ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania for reporting the news that was supposed to be announced exclusively on Prime: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would win the NBA MVP award. Charania, the lead ESPN reporter, sent out a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1940552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1940552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1940552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1940552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1940552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}