With over 116 million views, ESPN’s Shams Charania shocked the world last when he dropped the leak of Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis. Be it trade news or injury updates, the announcement from the 32-year-old is before the league’s official statement. Sunday was no different, as he tweeted, “Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award, becoming the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs”. The issue here was that it was to be announced on NBA on Prime later that evening. So, the Amazon Prime studio had some words in exchange.

Taylor Rooks, the host, kept it subtle, but still, it was loaded with sarcasm. “Just to be clear, the official announcement is happening here,” Rooks said. “Dirk (Nowitzki) and Steve, you all both won MVPs, but I don’t remember Shams spoiling it back then.” It was a perfect layup, and former MVP and Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitski stated, “He was a baby then.” While he kept the retort simple, former #1 pick and ROTY Blake Griffin honed his comedy skills. “It’s Sunday, Shams,” Griffin said. “Go to brunch, nerd.”

It was supposed to be announced exclusively on Prime that SGA was the MVP. But ESPN’s senior insider sent out a tweet at 9:50 a.m and ESPN followed it up with a published a news story at 10:15 a.m. ET. Later, Charania also joined SportsCenter to reveal the news. That’s why Griffin suggested Shams should have focused on his brunch plans rather than spending his Sunday morning leaking the MVP news. Steve Nash, another former MVP, announced it on the show around 7:45 p.m. ET.

Gilgeous-Alexander won the MVP award for the second straight season, earning 83 of 100 first-place votes to beat out Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama. The Thunder have now produced two straight sweeps in the postseason on their path to winning the championship again. While the voting on the MVP and other postseason awards had to be submitted before the start of the playoffs, the league traditionally waits until the opportune moment to announce the winners on the pregame shows of its media partners.

The NBA chose the Prime’s pregame show on Sunday, as from tomorrow we begin the Western Conference Finals featuring the two finalists, SGA and Wemby. Just like Prime, earlier in the playoffs, NBC had the opportunity to announce the other awards, like DPOY and ROTY. At the time, no media outlet had reported on any of the other postseason awards before they were presented. That’s why fans and Prime analysts had an issue with ESPN and Shams Charania for leaking the news.

Reports also issued their grievances over Shams Charania’s leak

“League waited 5 weeks after the regular season just to have it leaked like this. What a waste,” wrote ClutchPoints’ NBA insider Tomer Azarly. Interestingly, the issue was raised because it happened two years in a row. Charania did the same thing last year, and if that was an error, this year apparently made it clear that the ESPN senior insider will break the news irrespective of official announcement.

Clemente Almanza, The Thunder Wire Lead Writer, added his frustration and wrote that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was robbed of the moment. “Spoiling MVP again is so lame. Doesn’t do it for any other award or accolade. Just a clout-hungry move to make. Everybody knew he was going to win it. Let SGA and Thunder fans have their moment in real time instead of creating this awkward 10-hour waiting period.”

SGA also became just the 14th player in league history to win MVP in back-to-back years, joining Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Steve Nash, and Tim Duncan as repeat winners this century. While doing so, he guided Oklahoma City to a league-best 64-18 record. So, the buildup and reveal from Amazon Prime was warranted rather than a tweet from Shams Charania.