Shams Charania defends revealing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won NBA MVP early
The NBA insider spoiled Sunday's MVP reveal by announcing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the winner early. On Monday, he defended that decision.
Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his second straight NBA MVP award, becoming the 14th player to be named the MVP in back-to-back seasons and the first to do so since Nikola Jokic in 2021-22. However, that moment was slightly spoiled on Sunday when NBA insider Shams Charania, appearing on ESPN's SportsCenter, revealed that Gilgeous-Alexander had won the award. With that early announcement came some criticism , including from the NBA on Prime studio crew, as Blake Griffin said, "It's Sunday, Shams.
Go to brunch. " Charania appeared on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday to defend his decision to release the results of the MVP voting early, arguing that his job is to report the news. “I mean, listen, part of me is like, what are we talking about here?
” Charania said. “The other part of me is like, for me, when I get news, when I get information, if I’ve vetted it like I did late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, when I have news 100%, no matter how big, no matter how small, and in this case, obviously very, very big accomplishment, very big news around the NBA, for the NBA, for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being the 14th player in NBA history to be the back-to-back league MVP. He’s only, since Stephen Curry, the only guard to be back-to-back.
He’s the only player to go back-to-back, period, since Nikola Jokic. There’s a list of accomplishments here. I mean, he’s in rarefied air.