Griffin criticises Charania over premature MVP leak

Blake Griffin, a member of the Amazon Prime Video NBA pregame show crew, publicly criticised ESPN reporter Shams Charania for breaking the news of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s repeat NBA MVP award on social media early Sunday morning. The premature announcement spoiled the NBA’s planned reveal during its primetime playoff broadcast.

Griffin told Charania, “What are we doing man? It’s Sunday, Shams... Go to brunch you nerd. C’mon,” noting the lack of reason for the early leak. While acknowledging that breaking news is Charania’s role, Griffin expressed frustration over the timing, which disrupted the broadcast partner’s scheduled programming.

The incident began when Charania posted the news on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday morning, breaking the news before the scheduled primetime broadcast. Some fans speculated that Charania may have scheduled the post but mistakenly set the time to a.m. instead of p.m., although this cannot be verified.

Charania posted a follow-up message after the initial post, suggesting the early release was intentional. This follow-up led to further speculation that the reporter had deliberately chosen to beat the broadcast window, effectively ruining the moment for one of the league's broadcast partners.

The NBA had planned to announce the MVP winner during the Amazon Prime Video broadcast of the Sunday night playoff game. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, was the winner of the NBA MVP award. The Sporting News and Yahoo Sports reported on the incident, highlighting the tension between traditional broadcast windows and the speed of digital journalism.

Griffin’s comments were made during the Prime pregame show, indicating the broadcast team was unhappy about the leak. While Griffin had a point regarding the lack of necessity for such an early announcement, the nature of Charania’s job is to break news before it is otherwise announced, even if it extends to awards.

The NBA probably wasn't thrilled that the news broke in a single social media post early Sunday morning rather than in their primetime playoff broadcast. However, it remains unclear whether Charania’s early post was a genuine error or an intentional leak to beat the broadcast.