There were two losers in the Damian Lillard trade - the Miami Heat and journalist Shams Charania. Shams has been slowly building himself to be a viable rival in the NBA news wars to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. However, The Athletic and Stadium reporter took a major blow to his credibility while trying to beat Woj to the Damian Lillard trade news. Shams tweeted the news just after Woj did. However, Shams' tweet was full of errors. His tweet listed the Raptors as Lillard's destination rather than the Bucks. Furthermore, Shams erroneously reported the trade as a four-team trade despite only listing three teams.
The tweet was widely roasted online, with people clowning on Shams for getting the trade report so wrong while also still being beat to the scoop by Woj. Meanwhile, many journalists noted that even in the battle to be "first to report", it's still better to be right than first. However, for many people, it also showed exactly why Woj is and remains king of the NBA scoops.
Is Shams Cooked?
However, it's not the first time this year that Shams has made a questionable reporting decision. In the hours before the NBA draft, Shams reported that the Hornets were considering Scoot Henderson over Brandon Miller at #2. This led to a wave of people putting money on Henderson to the Hornets. However, the Hornets chose Miller and said after the draft that he was always going to be the pick. Shams' integrity was brought into question given his ties to the betting platform FanDuel.
Many fans, rightfully, questioned if Shams had knowingly released information he knew to be shaky at best because it would help FanDuel's margins. It briefly raised questions as to the impact that sports bettors having sway over journalists is having on the sports media industry. While Woj's record isn't perfect, it's hard not to draw comparisons between the two reporters. After all, Shams managed to be both late and wrong to the Lillard trade. As SB Nation staffer Kofie Yeboah said in his response - "X having an edit button doesn't mean anything. Shams was still late and wrong about the trade."
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