Shams Charania-Adrian Wojnarowski-Pat McAfee Triangle Is Not Great For ESPN

The two most prominent NBA insiders are Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski. They often battle one another to be the first to break NBA news. Pat McAfee hosts a show on ESPN, and shows on the network traditionally feature Wojnarowski, since ESPN pays him. 

But McAfee always calls on Charania, who works for The Athletic, because Charania has been appearing on McAfee's show since before the former NFL punter went to ESPN. 

That's created a bit of an awkward situation where one of ESPN's most famous talents – McAfee – is promoting the work of Charania – who is a direct competitor of ESPN's highest-paid NBA insider, Wojnarowski. 

That wouldn't be a huge deal if Charania and Wojnarowski didn't have a very clear public rivalry. And, more importantly, if Charania didn't go on McAfee's ESPN show and subtly criticize "Woj" on a regular basis. 

Shams Charania continues to go on Pat McAfee's ESPN show and subtly take shots at NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski.

(Getty Images)

The most recent example comes in the form of the Los Angeles Lakers coaching search. Charania has reported all along that the two main candidates competing for the job are J.J. Redick and James Borrego. 

Then, seemingly out-of-nowhere, a Wojnarowski report stated that the Lakers offered a $70 million contract to UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley, who Wojnarowski said was the Lakers #1 choice, and Hurley ultimately turned it down. 

Wojnarowski could be 100% correct about his reporting, but there are some interesting things at play here. Wojnarowski wrote a book about Dan Hurley's father, Bob Hurley. It's fair to assume that "Woj" has a personal relationship with the Hurley family. 

But Charania has disputed the idea that the Lakers ever looked at Hurley as the top candidate on its list. All of that is probably what led him, on McAfee's show earlier in the week, to suggest that the Lakers didn't exactly "lose out" on Hurley. 

He could have ended it there, but he didn't. On Thursday, Charania returned to the Pat McAfee Show and continued to throw shade at Adrian Wojnarowski. Remember, ESPN pays Woj $10 million per year. He is one of the highest-paid "talents" at the company. 

Only adding to that was McAfee defending Charania, as McAfee is very in tune with talk in the sports media business and almost certainly knows that people are talking about the Charania-Wojnarowski beef and McAfee's role in it. 

"I actually said on your program, on May 24, that J.J. Redick is the favorite and that it is down to J.J. Redick and James Borrego as the two finalists for the Lakers… nothing changed from that point," Charania said. 

That's obviously a direct contradiction to Wojnarowski's reporting on Dan Hurley and the Lakers. 

McAfee did, after Charania finished speaking, say that the Lakers offered Hurley the contract that Woj reported and he turned it down. But then he added an interesting comment.

"Shams is our NBA guy. Completely OK with other NBA guys being our guy, but Shams has been our guy for literally half a decade," McAfee said before adding that "Shams" is "handsome" and brings a "youthful" feel to the show. 

Those may not be direct shots at Woj, but there's likely no one who would call Woj "handsome" or "youthful." 

As we've seen in the past, Pat McAfee is going to do what Pat McAfee does. ESPN pays McAfee to air the show, but they do not control it. 

That was never more obvious than when McAfee openly attacked a prominent ESPN executive on his show. That executive is no longer with the company. 

Wojnarowski probably doesn't love that McAfee puts Charania on his show, but he probably also knows that it's not a great idea to pick a fight with McAfee. The last guy who did that no longer works there.