To say that senior NBA insider Shams Charania is a busy man would be a wild understatement, but it’s true. But that’s the career path he’s chosen and been so successful at for years now.
Charania was profiled by New York Magazine recently, and in it, his dependency on his cell phone to do his insider work effectively was spotlighted.
It was reported that Shams Charania averages 18 hours of screen time on his phone a day. At 29 years old, the reporter has risen to be one of the two prominent insiders in the league. But he’s achieved such a high level of success in the social media age.
The feature pointed out that Shams Charania will send upwards of 500 text messages and emails per day. In the race to beat ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski to the scoop, Charania said he has to be constantly connected to his phone to make it all work.
“My mind is consumed by, ‘What can I do today to get information that I didn’t have yesterday?'” he said. “It consumes everything I do.”
Charania rarely takes time off for fear of missing a scoop. But if he does have to disconnect and recharge his batteries, he’d prefer to be in a position to not disconnect fully.
“If I take a day off, never mind a week off, I put myself behind the eight ball,” he said. “I prefer the poolside sit-and-do-nothing vacation, so I can still be on my phone as constant as I wanna be.”
