Alex Sherman of CNBC scored the first exclusive interview with Shams Charania as the NBA insider gets acclimated to his new role at ESPN. He shed some light on what his responsibilities will be at the network with some detail.
Charania was less expansive when asked about how his relationship with former-teammate-turned-rival Adrian Wojnarowski.
That's about as well as the question, which is definitely fair game and something Charania has to expect will continue to be a point of public interest, can be answered. Shams was diplomatic and forward-thinking and, honestly, expressed a pretty healthy approach to the job.
He made his ESPN debut on Thursday morning, appearing on both and . And perhaps we got a glimpse of how he'll go about doing television. In both instances he revealed a bit of news—maybe not groundbreaking news, but news nonetheless—to Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith, who were teed up to give a reaction to it.
It's a template that's easy to replicate and there's no shortage of bombs, big or small, to drop—especially as the NBA season gets going. The straightforward format doesn't require Charania to light up the screen with magnetism but instead to introduce the top at hand with the latest, most accurate information and rely on the ESPN talents paid handsomely to have a take to give one.
A new era is here.