Spoiling draft picks on Twitter/X is not a new phenomenon. We’ve seen it for years now . But in the insider wars between ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Stadium and FanDuel’s Shams Charania, every piece of reporting is always going to be highly scrutinized. And when it came to the Los Angeles Lakers selecting Bronny James from USC at Pick #55 in Round 2 of the NBA Draft, Shams wasn’t going to let Woj and ESPN get all the glory.
While the ESPN television broadcast was still on Pick #54 with the Boston Celtics, Shams tweeted out at 6:05 PM ET that the Lakers were selecting Bronny James to pair him with his dad, LeBron James, as the first father-son teammates in NBA history.
Another prominent insider, Chris Haynes was on it as well, but the tweet came in at 6:06 PM ET for those scoring at home. The actual pick announcement from NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum came a few minutes later on the television coverage of the draft.
What’s hilarious is that Shams was tweeting out picks all throughout Round 2 of the draft with a link to his live stream on Stadium. But the Bronny pick was delivered in its own format with an edited Lakers jersey and everything. Incredibly, it almost didn’t happen as Shams tweeted that he was getting locked out of his account minutes before the Bronny pick.
Bronny James dominated ESPN’s Day 2 coverage of the NBA Draft since the beginning of the telecast, and let’s be honest, his story was the main attraction. Even early on in the proceedings, ESPN analyst Bob Myers floated a theory that Bronny’s agent Rich Paul was telling prospective teams that he would go play in Australia if he was selected in the second round. It’s probably safe to assume that threat didn’t include the Lakers.
Woj and Shams had quite the duel when it came to their reporting into the drama around the Lakers’ hiring of JJ Redick and their pursuit of UConn coach Dan Hurley. Shams was on top of the Lakers wanting to hire Redick first before the detour to Hurley and that turned out to be right.
And yes, Woj is handcuffed in what he can do because he’s part of ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage on the set and the network has long sought to not spoil their own television product. But now Shams can also claim another moral victory in being able to break the Bronny news to the world over Woj and ESPN, even if it was only by a few minutes. It’ll be interesting to see if Woj changes his stance about tipping picks when next year’s draft comes around.
The post Shams Charania beats ESPN and Woj to Bronny James Lakers pick appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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