Shams Charania joins ESPN as its new senior NBA insider

After the surprising candidacies of MLB insider Jeff Passan and NFL insider Adam Schefter, ESPN finally settled on the No. 1 available option to replace former senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, who surprisingly retired nearly three weeks ago.

RELATED: Ranking ESPN's NBA insider candidates to replace Adrian Wojnarowski

Shams Charania, the biggest free agent in the NBA reporter market, announced Monday he has joined ESPN as its new senior NBA insider.

Front Office Sports' Michael McCarthy reported earlier on Monday that Charania and ESPN were engaged in preliminary contract negotiations.

The 30-year-old Charania replaces Wojnarowski, who left ESPN to become the general manager of the men's basketball program at St. Bonaventure, his alma mater.

Last week on "The Pat McAfee Show," Charania said he had "a big decision" of his own to make while running down the latest NBA news in his weekly appearance. McAfee had campaigned for Charania to succeed Wojnarowski at ESPN.

ESPN has capable reporters covering the NBA, namely Ramona Shelburne, Tim Bontemps and front office insider Bobby Marks. The recent Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster trade showed how ESPN would cover major news in a post-Woj world, as Shelburne and Marks each reported news on different aspects of the deal.

However, it's not surprising ESPN is moving forward with Charania.

A former protege of Wojnarowski when both were at Yahoo Sports, Charania now has the basketball reporting world all to himself. And with new NBA broadcaster partners NBC and Amazon looming, it behooved ESPN to act now if they wanted to secure Charania as its new face of NBA news breaking.

McAfee talked on his show on Monday about how thrilled he is by ESPN's latest big-name hire.

"He's worked his ass off for a long time since he was 18 years old to network," McAfee said. "To do right people, to gain a following and some influence, to become the senior NBA insider for ESPN, who just forked over billions of dollars for NBA rights ... to get to this pivotal of a role — hell yeah, Shams, American dream baby. I'm incredibly proud of Shams Charania."

"ESPN won today," McAfee added.

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