One of the NBA’s biggest events of the year is upon us. Draft night—where every year, sixty young prospects realize their lifelong dream of making it to the big leagues. It’s their first step to a potentially legendary career. Naturally, all eyes remain glued to their television screens, especially when Adam Silver announces the lottery picks. However, this time, the hoop community saw an unusual behavior from veteran insider Shams Charania that left them concerned.

Usually, Shams is on high alert during the draft, constantly posting insider updates on social media, many a times even before they are shown on the live broadcast. But tonight, when Adam Silver announced, “With the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select Cooper Flagg from Duke University” Charania did not having anything to say about the most important pick of the event.

Of course, Flagg was the consensus number 1 pick this year, and no one was surprised to see Dallas picking him. But Shams remaining tight-lipped during his selection was strange because he rarely misses out on posting about such monumental moments. In fact, the ESPN insider revealed in a 2023 interview that he had a daily screen time of almost eighteen hours and sends out nearly 500 calls, texts, and e-mails a day in his pursuit to break the news before anyone else.

Even when Shams is on vacation, his screen time drops to just twelve hours. The guy is basically never not on his phone. “My mind is consumed by, ‘What can I do today to get information that I didn’t have yesterday?’ It consumes everything I do,” he remarked. Sure enough, his inactivity during Flagg’s selection left his followers worried.

NBA World blames ESPN amid concerns for Shams Charania’s inactivity during draft night

Well, Shams’ silence had his media peer Dan Greenberg concerned, as he questioned, “Is Shams busy on something or is he not tweeting picks this year???” Even the netizens followed suit, as comments like “No Shams leak?!” began flooding in.

However, many believed Charania could not post anything even if he wanted to because of his obligation to ESPN. One wrote, “He works for ESPN now so he not allowed to blow the pick they want the ratings” while another said, “ESPN doesn’t let him.” This is the first draft where Charania is under contract with ESPN, and of course, the draft is being broadcast on the network. Speculations are that he is not posting any updates because that could impact ESPN’s viewership.

Meanwhile, many netizens rejected this theory and claimed the only reason Shams was not posting is because this year’s draft is not interesting enough: “He’s disappointed nothing is happening.” Apart from Flagg, who is potentially a generational talent, there is not much star power in this draft class.

On the other hand, some believe Shams is silent because there is something bigger brewing behind the scenes, “Shams Charania not leaking the picks minutes before they happen. The nastiest f—— trade we’ve ever seen is probably in the works right now.”

Shams was the one who broke the Luka Doncic trade when no one else, except the Mavs and Lakers’ inner circle, knew about it. Clearly, not much is hidden from him. So, there could be a hidden agenda behind his silence during the Flagg pick. However, amid the countless speculations, the ESPN insider quickly broke silence as he began his usual routine of announcing updates following the Sixers’ number three selection of VJ Edgecombe.

Just like that, things were back to normal. What are your thoughts on Shams’ brief absence?