Prime analysts blast 'nerd' NBA insider for spoiling MVP announcement

Amazon Prime's bitter NBA panel fired shots at ESPN's Shams Charania for reporting this year's MVP winner hours before they were due to announce it. Charania broke the news on Sunday morning that Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player for the second year running, beating the San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama and the Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jovic to the prize. The basketball insider cited multiple sources when he revealed Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP again with a post on X at 9:50am ET, roughly 30 minutes before ESPN published a full news story on his information. And much to the frustration of the NBA on Prime Video team, they were left to officially announce the not-so-secret news at 7:45pm that evening. Host Taylor Rooks couldn't resist a dig at Charania on Sunday's show, saying before eight-time All-Star Steve Nash announced the winner: 'Just to be clear, the official announcement is happening here. 'Dirk (Nowitzki) and Steve, you all both won MVPs, but I don’t remember Shams spoiling it back then.' The panel broke into laughter before Nash said: 'Shots fired...' Six-time All-Star Blake Griffin then chipped in with the most brutal jibe about Charania. 'What are we doing, man? It’s Sunday, Shams,' Griffin said. 'Go to brunch, nerd. Come on!' Charania worked as a senior NBA writer for The Athletic before joining ESPN in 2024, with the reporter cementing himself as the league's top insider over the past two years. Royce Young, an ex-ESPN reporter who now works for the Thunder's front office, leapt to Charania's defense amid outrage over his announcement Sunday morning. 'Don’t blame Shams,' Young wrote on X. 'Blame whoever told him.' Gilgeous-Alexander became the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion after being crowned winner again on Sunday. The Canadian's victory also marks the eighth consecutive time that the MVP was born outside the US. The run started with Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver's Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia´s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a US citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024.