Earlier in the week, Milwaukee Bucks superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo posted on X that he misses former ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski. Antetokounmpo shared his thoughts as Shams Charania is in his first year holding the job Wojnarowski formerly occupied before moving to St. Bonaventure University to serve as general manager of the men’s basketball team. Charania had recently reported that Antetokounmpo was open to exploring the best fits for him outside of Milwaukee and never conveyed that he asked out. The post from Antetokounmpo occurred after Charania had appeared on an episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN.
Charania returned to the show on Friday inside of Gainbridge Fieldhouse ahead of Game 4 in the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. McAfee addressed what Antetokounmpo said and opined that people treated it as if Wojnarowski had passed away when he decided to retire from journalism. Furthermore, McAfee related the current situation to what Charania had to combat when reporting that Jimmy Butler was open to a trade from the Miami Heat and being publicly called out by his agent. In the end, Butler was dealt from the Heat to the Golden State Warriors, something McAfee feels should have granted Charania more credibility.
“Whenever that starts happening and people start burying Shams – start burying Shams outside – I think there’s people inside ESPN that are probably happy about that,” McAfee said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, this ain’t Woj. This is a whole new animal,’ and then lo and behold, Shams says, ‘Yeah, just like I f*****g said it would,’ it ends up happening how it is.”
McAfee explained that he understands that some journalists like being right and do not care when they are wrong. Furthermore, he contended that these journalists will continue acting as if they had everything right the whole time. Charania mentioned earlier in the segment how he felt like people were coming at him with knives and could not step foot in Miami amid the Butler trade reporting. Yet believes him and Antetokoummpo are fine before proceeding to discuss Wojnarowski, his former colleague at Yahoo Sports under The Vertical.
“I think we all in the industry, I think, really miss him,” Charania said of Wojnarowski. “I worked with him for two years – two, two-and-a-half years – and so I learned a lot. He was a great mentor to me, taught me a lot, made me better on a daily basis, and so that respect is definitely there, so I definitely miss him as well. He made me better, but I will say every single day, I’m just focused on what I can control in my job.”
Over the years where Wojnarowski and Charania worked for different outlets covering the NBA, there was a narrative surrounding competition between the two insiders. While they both still work in basketball, they are in different niches of the business and have been complimentary of one another. As it pertains to the situation surrounding Antetokounmpo, he expressed confidence in his reporting and acknowledged that something may not happen in the end if he wants to continue competing for a championship in Milwaukee.
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