We’re more than a year away from the NBA’s $77 billion media-rights deals kicking in. But chess pieces are already in motion following the surprising departure of ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

NBCUniversal is eyeing free-agent reporter Shams Charania, sources tell Front Office Sports. I’ve also heard Amazon is interested. The two sports media giants are poised to divide the NBA’s TV rights with incumbent ESPN starting with the 2025–2026 season. (TNT Sports, the NBA’s other longtime incumbent media partner, is suing to retain its rights.) 

The interest between Charania and suitors are in early stages, say sources. As with previous TV free agents Jason Kelce and Bill Belichick, he’s keeping his options wide open. “He’s talking to everyone at this point,” says one source.

Charania would fit neatly into NBC or Amazon Prime Video’s coverage. I could see NBC, which will air games for the first time in more than two decades, using Charania’s inside information similar to how the network employs Mike Florio on Football Night in America. Based on its track record with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, Prime likes to cast a blend of established talents and promising rookies. The 30-year-old star would be a great fit for Prime’s audience, which averages seven years younger during NFL games than the comparable audiences on linear networks. After competing against ESPN his whole career, Charania might relish the opportunity to compete against a Woj-less Bristol, writes Sam Amico of Hoops Wire.  

ESPN is still ESPN. Wojnarowski’s decision to retire from journalism and join his alma mater St. Bonaventure blows a huge hole in the sports giant’s NBA coverage. When ESPN wants a major talent, it usually gets them. (See how they raided Fox Sports to hire both Troy Aikman and Joe Buck.) But ESPN could elevate Brian Windhorst or Ramona Shelburne. Or use its loaded bench of NBA journalists—including Marc J. Spears, Zach Lowe, Tim Bontemps, and front office insider Bobby Marks—to adopt a scoops-by-committee approach.  

Keep this in mind: The Athletic won’t let Charania go without a fight. He’s been a huge part of the company’s hoops coverage since jumping over from Yahoo in 2018. The imprimatur of The New York Times is a lure for any journalist. It’s possible he could keep his written work at The Athletic while signing with Prime or NBC for an on-camera role.

The timing of the free-agent sweepstakes line up nicely for Charania and fellow available insider Chris Haynes. Charania’s deals with The Athletic and FanDuel, and Haynes’s contract with TNT, are up this year, according to the New York Post. Another name to watch is rising star Jake Fischer. He’s leaving Yahoo for parts currently unknown. I could see him jumping to Bill Simmons’s The Ringer or The Athletic.

One of the first sports books I read was Instant Replay by late sportswriter Dick Schaap and Packers guard Jerry Kramer. It was a pleasure to speak with Jeremy Schaap about the return of ESPN’s classic show, The Sports Reporters. 

The younger Schaap was a guest host and occasional panelist on the original version of the show, which aired on Sunday mornings from 1988 to 2017. (His father hosted from 1988 until his death in 2001; John Saunders hosted until his death in 2001.)

Schaap’s new Sports Reporters has been reimagined for YouTube and features four play-by-play announcers on NFL games: Joe Buck of ESPN, Mike Tirico of NBC Sports, Ian Eagle of CBS Sports, and Kevin Harlan of CBS and Westwood One.  

For many kids like myself, The Sports Reporters provided a glimpse into the glamorous world of sportswriters. Yes, it showed them discussing the biggest sports stories of the week. But they also discussed how they did their jobs, how they covered athletes, how they lived their fast-paced lifestyles.

“I can’t tell you how many people have reached out to me and said, ‘This is the show that I watched as a kid on Sunday mornings that made me want to be in this business. That excited me about this business, about having a role in it,’” Schaap told me. “I was one of those kids. I was older when the show came out; I was in college. But it’s such a formative part of my life. There’s so many people in the business that it means a lot to. That’s what I think is so special about it. It’s also a serious responsibility. To honor the show—and do justice to it.”

As a young journalist, Schaap literally grew up on the ESPN set with sports media legends like his dad, the late Joe Valerio and Saunders, as well as newspaper columnists Mike Lupica, Bill Rhoden, Mitch Albom, and Bob Ryan. He’s spoken to those living legends—and invited them back on to the show.

“I think of those guys [Rhoden, Albom, Lupica, and Ryan] as the Core Four. They were the guys on the last show in 2017,” Schaap says.

As for their return to the show, he said, “Mitch expressed immediate interest; Mike was a little more circumspect. … It’s certainly my hope [he’ll appear]. The chair’s always there for him.” 

Like Valerio, Schaap would also want to feature up-and-coming sportswriters. Back in the day, I remember watching the young Jemele Hill and Dan Le Batard on the show. Who will be the next generation? 

“There’s no doubt that we’re looking for new voices. It’s going to be a mix of more familiar voices, new voices, finding people out there who have something to say in a unique and compelling way,” Schaap says. “That’s part of the joy, I think, of the whole thing. It’s the search for new voices—and giving them a platform.”