During an appearance yesterday on The Pat McAfee Show, senior lead NBA insider for The Athletic and Stadium and FanDuel partner Shams Charania implied that the Charlotte Hornets would look to select Sterling “Scoot” Henderson with the second overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Questions surrounded what the Hornets would select with the draft pick, as the team is nearing the finalization of its sale of majority ownership held by Michael Jordan to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. After the San Antonio Spurs stole the show by selecting French phenom Victor Wembanyama, Charlotte selected Alabama forward Brandon Miller.
Miller was a witness to a fatal shooting who police say supplied the gun used by his teammate Darius Miles. While Miles was charged with capital murder, authorities did not charge Miller with a crime, but questions still remain regarding his maturity at the NBA level.
The Portland Trail Blazers chose Henderson third overall, but Charania’s assertion from earlier in the day had shifted betting lines at several major betting outlets. The mistake Charania made in saying Henderson would be chosen second overall, according to McAfee, changed the line from +140 to -900 within a five-minute period.
“FanDuel is not privy to any news Shams breaks on his platform,” the company said in a statement.
Recollecting the incident, the soon-to-be ESPN midday television host said that Charania took a swing for the fences with what he said on the program, along with the Tweet he issued out describing Henderson as gaining “serious momentum” to be selected by Charlotte. In the end, he was incorrect, and it is an outcome NFL Network national insider Ian Rapoport tries to avoid at all costs. He texted with Charania after the incident occurred and mentioned the admiration he garners towards him, but admitted that it was a deleterious scenario.
“Reporting on the Draft is so hard because nobody wants to get jumped and teams will say [stuff and] people will talk about lying season,” Rapoport explained. “Sometimes lying is worth it, or omitting or misleading is worth it to get the player you want. I’m not saying that happened here, but I know that [it] happens.”
Rapoport has reported on the NFL Draft for many years and is known as one of the industry’s preeminent newsbreakers. Whenever he is reporting on a story, Rapoport ensures he triangulates sources, but there are times in the heat of the moment when insiders deem considerable intel and confirmation thereof as sufficient to share information. When Rapoport was at this year’s NFL Draft and confirmed the Houston Texans were trading up to select Will Anderson from Alabama, he was visibly shaking in excitement to divulge the news. Before this moment, Rapoport had confirmed that the team was selecting Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud second-overall, but only did so after the speculation was confirmed by inside sources.
Rapoport stated earlier in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show that he believed Stroud would be selected No. 2 overall, but did not present it as a definitive. The difference between the instances involving Rapoport and Charania was that Rapoport did not present the information with any semblance of it being definitive or based on information he uncovered.
“I was just confident in using my deduction and everything I had learned,” Rapoport said. “I was like, ‘I believe it’s going to be CJ, but I don’t know,’ and obviously some other very good people thought the opposite. But the most important thing to me draft-wise is to say, ‘I don’t know,’ because unless you know for sure; unless the G.M. is like, ‘Hey, this is who we’re picking,’ it is impossible.”
Charania has a stellar track record as a trusted NBA insider and expressed the importance of being 100% sure of any information he disseminates in an interview with Derek Futterman of Barrett Sports Media. Because of his personality and adherence to ethics as a reporter, McAfee believes he will bounce back and learn from his mistake.
“In the insider game, you guys have to kind of wade through bullshit all the time,” McAfee said to Rapoport. “I would not envy anybody who is in your seat at all, but you guys are committed to the game and you have to be…. It’s quite a balance you guys have to do.”
