Keeping secrets is an art, and clearly, ESPN hasn’t mastered it. Last week, hours before the NBA announced the 2026 MVP, Shams Charania took the responsibility of revealing his name. Fans weren’t happy about it, and Charles Barkley called out the senior insider. But looks like very little has evolved despite the previous public outrage. Only this time, it wasn’t Charania for a change!

Charania’s colleague at ESPN, Dave McMenamin, in his recent article titled “SGA, Jokic, Wembanyama, Doncic, Cunningham make 1st-team All-NBA,” gave away the name of the 2026 NBA Coach of the Year. Well, to no one’s surprise, it is the Detroit Pistons head coach, J.B. Bickerstaff. The 47-year-old truly took control of the team and turned it into the first seed in the Eastern Conference. Their season came to an end against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs. Yet, J.B. Bickerstaff’s leadership was clearly the ultimate weapon.

However, it is indeed disappointing for the fans who can now just Google search the report to find his name. The NBA was going to announce the COTY on Tuesday, May 26. But it looks like Adam Silver & Co. really don’t have much to do now.

Interestingly enough, the same article gives the fans the list of players who have won major NBA awards this season. Like the All-NBA First Team, All-NBA Second Team, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man, and more. However, McMenamin has completely omitted the MVP category, while keeping the Clutch Player of the Year on the list. Now, coming back to J.B. Bickerstaff’s name reveal. Dave McMenamin, unknowingly (or knowingly), walked on Shams Charania’s path.

And therefore, fans on social media are dragging the 32-year-old into the conversation. Comments like, “The Shams Effect smh…” and “Yes, looking at you, Shams lol,” have filled up the comment section. Now, Shams Charania faced backlash for giving away Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s name before the league announced the 2026 Most Valuable Player. Recently, league legend Charles Barkley also called out the ESPN reporter.

“I like him a lot, but I didn’t like that leaking,” Barkley shared with Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina. “(Amazon) paid $2.5 billion for the next 11 years. I think they deserved an exclusive. I think the NBA should be embarrassed that that got out. You know, you can’t charge these networks that much money and then don’t give them some exclusives on some things. I mean, I just think that’s unfair.” And days later, Charania spoke up about leaking the MVP name.

Shams Charania had to come up with clarifications

Shai Gilgeous Alexander owned the MVP race long before the official announcement ever arrived. Even though the league planned to unveil the result during Amazon Prime Video’s May 17 studio show, Shams Charania broke the news at 9 a.m. ET and stirred another media storm in the process. Ex-NBA star Blake Griffin called out the senior insider, “What are we doing? Like, it’s Sunday, Shams. Go to brunch, you nerd.”

Meanwhile, Charania explained why he reported the NBA MVP result before the official announcement. Charania revealed that he only reports news after carefully confirming details through reliable sources and ensuring the information is solid. “When I get news, when I get information, if I’ve vetted it, like I did late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, when I have news 100%,” he said on the Pat McAfee Show. “No matter how big, no matter how small, and in this case, obviously, very, very big accomplishment, very big news around the NBA, for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being the 14th player in NBA history to be the back-to-back league MVP.”

He further added, “He’s only, you know, since Stephen Curry, the only guard to be back-to-back. There’s a list of accomplishments here. So this is a massive story. And when I get it, I vet it; and then my job is to report the news. And so that’s all I focus on. That’s what I wake up thinking about. That’s what I go to sleep thinking about. I feel the responsibility.”

Well, that’s two major leaks in two weeks from ESPN. First, it was Shams Charania, then Dave McMenamin walked on the same path. And to be honest, fans aren’t enjoying this grand reveal every time.