Criticism of Shams Charania ‘Ruining’ MVP Announcement Is Off Base

1. At 9:50 a.m. ET on Sunday, ESPN reporter Shams Charania broke the news that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had won the 2025–26 NBA MVP award.

Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award, becoming the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs, multiple sources tell ESPN.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 17, 2026

The announcement was supposed to come at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday during Prime Video’s pregame show for Game 7 of the Cavaliers-Pistons series.

For some reason, people took issue with Charania for doing his job and reporting news.

Charania works for ESPN. He’s under no obligation to Prime Video. If ESPN was going to announce the MVP award and a reporter from another outlet got the news early, guess what? They would announce it 100 out of 100 times.

The biggest problem here is that the NBA and Prime Video thought they would be able to keep the news under wraps for 10 hours.

I thought the Prime Video crew “joking” about Shams stealing their thunder was weak. I know everyone associated with this will say they were kidding, but the undertone was obvious. They weren’t happy with Shams. At all.

Taylor Rooks & Blake Griffin were PISSED that Shams leaked the MVP announcement pic.twitter.com/04JUpNlCww
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) May 17, 2026

Prime Video got beaten on a story. It happens. I’d also make the argument that NBA fans weren’t going to tune in en masse to Prime Video at 7:30 to find out the MVP. Let’s be honest. Most fans these days, across every sport, get info like the MVP award from social media. The MVP announcement isn’t a TV event, especially on a streaming service. I would be willing to bet money there wasn’t one person across the country on Sunday who was telling people, “I’m going to tune into Prime Video at 7:30 to find out the MVP.” That’s just not how breaking news works anymore.

Any criticism of Charania here is either from people who don’t understand how breaking news works in this day or people with sour grapes. The bottom line is Charania did nothing wrong.

2. After watching this clip, I’m not sure anyone hates anything as much as Bill Belichick hates coffee.

“I can’t stand coffee” -Bill Belichick

“Let me test you right now… Coffee or the New York Jets?” -@BarstoolBigCat

“Oh I’d go with the Jets” -Bill Belichick pic.twitter.com/kQ0XWmpuv7
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 18, 2026

3. The White Sox won a 9–8 thriller against the Cubs on Sunday thanks to Edgar Quero hitting a two-run game-winner in the bottom of the ninth. The dinger was so dramatic that the voice of White Sox radio broadcaster Len Kasper couldn’t even handle it.

listening to this on repeat until further notice pic.twitter.com/MBypdkmX68
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 17, 2026

4. We love a fed up announcer, so we thoroughly enjoyed Guardians analyst Rick Manning getting disgusted with Cleveland first baseman Kyle Manzardo for losing a pop-up in the sun while his sunglasses remained on his hat.

Manzardo loses a ball in the sun with sunglasses on his hat and Rick Manning goes off 😂

“Does he have sunglasses on top of his hat?”

“The sun has been out there all day- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” pic.twitter.com/7mdMV7Gvp8
— McNeil (@REFLOG18) May 17, 2026

5. Shaquille O’Neal received a master’s degree from LSU over the weekend. You have to hear how he was introduced when it time for him to get his diploma.

Shaq earns his Masters from LSU 🎓@lsubasketball | #ForeverLSU pic.twitter.com/ExdEVN15OC
— The Brand (@TheBrandLSU) May 16, 2026

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North.

North discusses all things 2026 NFL schedule. Topics include whether Sunday afternoons are getting hurt by adding so many standalone games, when the schedule actually gets finalized and when teams get the schedule, how flex scheduling will work for the 2026 season and why the NFL added a game on Thanksgiving Eve.

In addition, North talks about going with the Chiefs in prime time for the first two weeks of the season despite the unknown status of Patrick Mahomes, why the league decided to have the Patriots play the Seahawks in the season opener, Prime Video getting such a strong schedule, the possibility of an 18-game season and much more.

Following North, Sal Licata, from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show, joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include Sal’s review of the Michael Jackson movie, Netflix’s Roast of Kevin Hart, the Knicks’ incredible playoff run, the devaluing of NFL Sunday Ticket, Bill Simmons’s interview with David Letterman, Stephen Colbert’s final days as host of The Late Show and much more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Saturday Night Live aired its season finale this past weekend, which means we were treated to one of the best recurring bits on television: Colin Jost and Michael Che swapping jokes.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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