Digital Social Hour - Shams Charania Reveals His Journey To Becoming The #1 NBA Reporter | Digital Social Hour #120

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

On today's episode of the Digital Social Hour, we sit down with Shams Charania to reveal the team's he is excited for in the upcoming 2023-24 NBA season, how he climbed the ranks of reporters to the top and who he thinks the GOAT is. BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] APPLY TO BE ON THE POD: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH HelloFresh: https://www.hellofresh.com/50dsh AG1: https://www.drinkAG1.com/DSH Hostage Tape: https://hostagetape.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You were able to network your way to the top. You're probably the most known reporter, you and Woj, in the whole NBA. How were you able to just climb that ladder over the years? Go to the NBA, that was my dream, was playing in the NBA. But once I realized that wasn't gonna happen, I'm like, how can I stay around the game? If I'm not gonna play, how can I keep playing the game of this basketball life? And so I always loved writing, I always loved the NBA. So I kind of just combined both passions.

When I was 18, 19, 20 years old, there was a lot of cold calls, cold texts. And when you reach out to people, they don't ask how old you are. That's not the first, it's really about how mature you are, how professional you approach the conversation. And- Because you were the youngest one coming up,

but people took you serious because of what you provided. No one knew how old I was really until they had- Until they tried to buy you a drink or something? Yeah, i'm like welcome back to the digital social hour guys i'm your host sean kelly here with my co-host charlie cavalier and our guest today sham's tarania how's it going man sean great great Welcome back to the Digital Soul Shower, guys. I'm your host, Sean Kelly. Here with my co-host, Charlie Cavalier. And our guest today, Shams Tarania. How's it going, man?

Sean, great having you. Beautiful studio you have. I'm glad we were able to make this happen in Vegas. Absolutely, man. It's been a cool summer league. What have you thought about it so far? I mean, definitely like every year, summer league, as far as the fan base. Like now you go to the arena, the amount of fans that are here is packed.

Obviously, Victor Weminyama being a big part of that, but I mean, the arena is just has an amazing environment, great crowd. And it's not just for Victor's games. Like you'll go to like a, you know, any, any, any, any of these games that either the Cox pavilion, Thomas and Mac is it's, it's filled with fans. So it's definitely my first summer league was 2013. I was doing the headlines. Didn't know anyone. I i was 19 years old so from now then to now i'm definitely way more comfortable yeah but the amount of fans and like hype and interaction there is more it's it's gone exponentially higher that's sick yeah it seems like every year it just steps up and now they announce the tournament right yeah the in-season tournament um you're talking about regular season right yeah so there's gonna be the in-season tournament all all 30 teams playing for basically an in-season regular season championship

type type you know during the first half of the season yeah uh and I think there's gonna be a lot of excitement around it obviously a little bit more uh prizes uh more money for the players that win the win the entire championship for the in-season tournament. So I'm curious to see how that's going to play out and how these guys are able to get the gumption to go play at a higher level for some of these regular season games that might not have had the same meaning in past years. Yeah, because 82 games, it's tough to lock in for that amount of time. Yeah, and this will give a new twist to it, right? Those national TV games will have a little bit more oomph more behind it and you're going to be playing for something in the winning

team, getting a million dollars. You know, like that's, that's going to be big. Yeah. It's nice to see because there's a lot of those are like, you know, mid January, mid February games where it's just a little in the season. Do you think people are going to start counting if they win this, you know, in season tournament, not as not quite like a ring, but do you think they're going to, you know know give it a little bit more credence and like i won i'm a winner i'm a champion sort of thing from winning that in season tournament yeah i mean i i don't it's it's always going to be hard to like surpass right the the larry o'brien trophy like that's always going to be the the number one thing but i think from from the perspective of um something

else to play for and and just heightening up some of these regular season games the financial uh you know you know the the financial prize is going to be one thing but I think um you know you're going to want to compete at a high level especially when there's a championship of any length on the line yeah um and I think it's going to be good for these teams to build the right habits early in the season but I think overall what we're seeing now in the nba is just the amount of parity that exists uh in regular season i think does mean more than it ever has yeah because like last year you could you went into playoffs like maybe 10 of the 16 teams probably went into the playoffs saying i think we can win a championship yeah and in past years it's really just one or two teams so i think i

think that's got to be something the league is really happy about. I didn't know who would win it last year, and I haven't felt that way in a while. Yeah, it was crazy. We were talking about it all during the playoffs. I mean, seeing Joker obviously turn it on after a while was fun to see. Yeah. So you've gotten to see Victor play in person. What did you think about his first two games, and do you see him just dominating?

Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't know if he's going to dominate like right off the bat, but I think you're seeing the signs from him that show you why he's going to be one of the most unique players definitely in the league next year and for years to come. I mean, when you think about, you know, he's able to ball handle, he's able to move, the way he's able to, you know, crossover like he's Kevin Durant, the way he's able to post up um like shack at different times like he has so many elements of these all-time greats in his game yeah now it's just going to be about putting it all together um you know continuing to work on his body getting repetition

getting rhythm um strengthening his body and i think once he puts all of that together you could just tell he's going to be a force i mean just his first game i know statistically people were down on him but uh very down yeah yeah like one of the first plays in the game that he had he literally got the ball uh three-fourths length of the court dribble the ball up all the way um passed a couple defenders found a guy with an assist for a layup like that's stuff that we haven't seen from a guy his size and do it how fluidly he does it and there's another play that first game where he had literally had a crossover he missed the layout but he had a crossover where he went by a guy um like he was kevin durant and so at seven five um he's gonna be you know one of the more unique if not the most

unique player in the league next year yeah and we saw the last game he's able to make some more shots feel a lot better he even said the first game i don't know what i was doing out there second game he was getting his rhythm and now now the Spurs just made it official. He's not going to play the rest of the summer league. Oh, wow. Yeah. So breaking news on the podcast. That second game was enough.

Two games. Last game, 2010, basically 27 points, 10 plus rebounds. And his summer league's over. Wow. They broke down the math very specifically for him. He actually turned down playing for France in the FIBA World Championship this summer because he literally did the math based off of how the Mets 92 team did. very specifically for him. He actually turned down playing for France in the FIBA World Championship this summer because he literally did the math based off

of how the Mets 92 team did the last year he played with them and the next two NBA seasons. They had basically worked it out that he was going to play like 192 games over the next like 24 months. That's a lot. And when you're just in this era of load management and

when you're that big, I mean, feet break very easily, right? They want to protect him as much as possible. And planning ahead, why play 10 more summer league games? You just got to be existing for 20 more years. Yeah, I think guys that size, there's always going to be that. That Greg Odenriss. Even Kevin Durant, a few years in his career,

he had a Jones fracture, I believe. So there's always going to be that fear with guys that size. But you can't really play with fear you know you can't play like that and i know just being around victor wellman yama the last couple years and definitely especially during this draft process the way his mentality is how locked in he is his attitude like his genuine love for the game there's guys that at the age of 19 with this much hoopla this much energy around him this much hype around him You can get lost in it, but he's so focused

He's so dialed in and I really think when you when you're on him you talk to me talk to people around him He's so locked in and focused on greatness. Yeah, it's special to see and you want to see him see that through Yeah, I mean pretty pretty Spears saw that firsthand So your your industry is all about connections. You were able to network your way to the top. You're probably the most known reporter, you and Woj in the whole NBA. How were you able to just climb that ladder over the years? Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of people, it's easy to see the end of the end, you know, the end picture, right? Like this year, like, oh, how's you know, how's he done this? But I mean, I've I started on this path my sophomore

year of high school in 2010. And so, I mean, i wasn't doing at this level obviously i wasn't breaking trades or signings or anything like that but i was starting my path in writing and i think just finding my voice after i after i realized i wasn't going to go beyond high school basketball going to college and play basketball and go to the nba that was my dream was playing in the nba but once i realized that wasn't going to happen i'm like how, how can I stay around the game? How can I keep playing? You know, if I'm not going to play, how can I keep playing the game of this basketball life? And so I always loved writing. I always loved the NBA. So I kind of just combined both passions, started writing a lot. And I think from there, just, you know, 2010, 2011, 2012, when I was, you know was 18, 19, 20 years old,

there was a lot of cold calls, cold texts, and reaching out to people, any number, any contact I can find and just hope that I can, when you reach out to people, they don't ask how old you are. That's not the first, it's really about how mature you are, how professional you approach the conversation. And I just tried to approach every conversation

professionally, I feel like I'm an old soul anyway and so I think for me it's been just a gradual going to games covering games going in person like my first game I covered in 2012 like that was big for me right no actually being around the players interviewing the players in person seeing league execs agents things like that and then my first summer league 2013 i think that was like a game changer for me because i was in a very uncomfortable position because i was around you know all these people who i might know their name but i've never seen them they definitely don't know who i am at that point

right so i really just had to you know what's the saying you know you live in the uncomfort you know and that makes you you know even better in the uncomfort you know and that makes you you know even better and on the other side you you hopefully learn from all the uncomfortable moments and uncomfortable positions you put yourself in and hopefully you thrive off that and um 2013 summer league was big and from there is this building building building and you know one story leads to the next and you know you break a couple 10 days you make a couple regular season deals you break one or two big trades and i think you just keep you know, you break a couple of 10 days, you break a couple of regular season deals, you break one or two big trades. And I think you just keep, you know, adding up those moments, stacking up those moments.

And I think, you know, treating those relationships with with with fairness, with with trying to build equity and not just reaching out to people when you need something. Right. Right. Just providing value. Yeah. Yeah. And that's sick. I like what he said about the age because you were the youngest one coming up. But people took you serious because of what you provided yeah i mean no one asked no one knew how old i was really until you know they had you know once i started meeting them right and then maybe they saw like yo you look till they try to buy you a drink or something yeah i'm like first of all i either don't drink or i can't drink right now legally um or they saw me like you know he looks like a baby like um and then you kind of like yeah i'm you

know i'm 21 i'm 22 and then you get the occasional like you know why are you here like why aren't you out partying with your friends like why aren't you out doing this like why aren't you out getting getting hammered and i'm like i love this too much like i'm too like i live my life i feel like very disciplined and uh you know i i kind of know what goals I want you know I feel like I've set goals for myself every year yeah and then I just you know I try to obviously get to them and then set more goals nice just like continually set goals for yourself continue to hopefully achieve them set new goals and I think that's the one way I feel like I'm never satisfied you know I never feel like I've made it per se I

love that because there's such a notion that you should just party in your 20s but I feel like you should just try I love that because there's such a notion that you should just party in your 20s. But I feel like you should just grind. I agree. That's like your prime years. Hey, man, I'm sitting with the right-minded people right now. So I definitely feel the same way. So what is one trade that needs to happen in the NBA?

Right now. Yeah, you cannot understand why it's not happening. Damien Lillard to Miami. For who? Well. Does Tyler hero have to bounce tyler hero would almost certainly have to be a part of any damian lillard package if you're miami and not not even necessarily to portland i think you find a third team and i from what i'm told there are multiple teams out there that would give at least one first round pick for tyler hero so you're mi give at least one first round pick for Tyler Hero.

So you're Miami. You have two first round picks of your own. You're able to go get another first at least. You might be able to get even more than one first from another team for Hero. So you're able to go get another first for Hero. So you have potentially at least three first round picks you can trade to Portland. And then you add that with expiring contracts, maybe a young player, maybe some other additional assets like second round picks, etc. You have a pretty compelling offer that you can make to Portland for Damian Lillard.

And I think that's the, you know, when you talk about the remaining topics around the league, free agency has pretty much come to a halt. There are a few other, a few guys left. Christian Wood, Kelly Oubre, PJ Washington, I'm still, you know, you still got to monitor. But I think the Damian Lillard trade, I think is definitely something that's at the top of mind around the league. Yeah, I've heard rumors of it. So do you have to be glued to your phone because you breaking these trades first is important, right? Yeah, I mean, for sure.

I spend a lot of time on my phone. I can tell. It's a big part of my life for sure. My family members understand it. It's good for me, my mom, my sister, sure you know what my family members understand it yeah good like for me my mom my sister my brother you know my dad like they understand it yeah you know there's not like this weird tension it's like when you're on a date right day like 20 30 minutes and then you come back and you're like yeah this is this you have a legit reason to be using your phone at

the dinner table at least my family thinks so yeah it's all legit let the man be on his phone please so but no i mean you know during busy times of the year trade deadline free agency draft you know you know you're going to be on your phone right you know right now it's busy right yeah summer league yeah most of your living you know day you know when you're sleeping obviously there's not like a microchip you know you can put. You're going to get Neuralink? I think I care about my health too much. But technically, there's no safe microchip or Neuralink that you can put on your head quite yet. So right now, I try to get my rest.

When I'm up, I'm going to be on it. I just saw a stat like the average American five and a half hours on your phone now. I would have guessed more, honestly. Yeah, compared to when iPhones came out, I think it was like was like 30 minutes well let's just say i'm not your average human right right at least when it comes to screen time probably double it for you yeah so who's going to be better next year the suns or the warriors it's a great question you know i'm not really good at picks i don't really do picks um i think i think i think both teams you know you have to you have to think they've elevated you know getting chris paul in dario sarich in um i think i think i think golden state has done

a good job uh this off season they they've doubled down on their identity on themselves bringing back jay mongling on that contract i think there was a lot of the grizzlies were the one team that was season they they've doubled down on on their identity on themselves bringing back dream on going on that contract I think there was a lot of the Grizzlies were the one team that was really really passionate about going and getting a guy like Dremel obviously they go out and get Marcus smart you're able to get that veteran culture setter I think both guys would have been amazing imagine getting both guys you know both Marcus smart dream on green if you're Memphis um but they get Marcus smart and dream on green he I think in his heart of hearts, he wanted to stay in Golden State. He gets the deal done.

He stays. And I think you double down your identity. Go get a veteran player in Chris Paul. And I think it's go time now. And when you look at Phoenix, going and getting Brad Beal is one thing. But now they've surrounded this team with a bunch of minimum salary guys. I mean, they went out and got Eric Gordon, Yuta Watanabe. They really upgraded their team on multiple fronts.

Drew Eubanks from Portland, they signed him on a minimum contract. He's very underrated. Going out and getting like four or five legitimate high-level rotation players that Eric Gordon, he's a guy that turned down minimum deals with Golden State, with Milwaukee.

He turned on more money from other teams, from what I'm told, to go play in Phoenix. This is a team that has clearly shown they can go and attract talent, especially around Brad Beal and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Yeah. They're looking nasty, man. And Eric Gordon was like – Eric Gordon in high school and at Indiana, everyone forgets how good EG was when he first came in,

but he was amazing and he's had an amazing career and he can do all sorts of great things for playoffs. Yeah. I think when you're an average player in the NBA, it's easy to forget their high school and college careers. We were talking to Spencer earlier and he averaged more points in the NBA than he did in high school and college.

Spencer is one of a kind, a very very unique player i feel like he's gotten better this the second half of his career than he was his first half i mean i was he was in detroit he was he was up and down there and then he gets to brooklyn i think his career just takes off then washington you know that was a lot a lot going on there he goes to dallas leads that team the western conference with luca donchik and jalen brunson. Now he's back in a leadership position with Brooklyn. I think second half of the year, I think, was one of the top players in assists in the league. So he's a guy that I think, you know, he's definitely taking off.

But there's a lot of guys like that, man. And that's why scouting is very important, making sure you identify guys that you feel like could play at a higher level come NBA time and not just be peaking in college. Yeah, because athleticism is one part of it, but they also need the mindset and other attributes. Right. No question. And, and I think mentality is important. Um, work ethics important. Yeah.

How they handle themselves on off days and treatment of body and things like that. Like those are all things that scouts teams are identifying on a daily basis. Yeah. They be known if they go out to the club these days. Yeah. It's crazy i'll just say this nba teams literally go above and beyond to do their research i'm sure they they will they will know everything about you by the time the draft process is over there's too much to take not to yeah 100 i mean these guys are gonna be making like you said 100 millions eventually as they're in the league sometimes 40 50 million right off the bat um and when you're a general manager you don't want to get these picks wrong so you're going to try to uncover any stone possibly yeah

it's a bad look like the Knicks have a good history of that but that's a bad history everyone but I mean the Eddie Curry signing was great back in the 2000s come on so what's a typical day like for you during the season are you flying out to a bunch of games or are you just working from one spot yeah I mean it's it's it's good for me I can be remote um but definitely like to go out to games being in Chicago I'm able to see games the Bulls games Pacers games Bucks games so that's good for me yeah um if I have to travel I'll travel a lot of it will be based on my content that I'm working on um and then I started you know I work at the athletic and stadium I did do a fan dual tv uh last year so this past season I spent you know one or two times a month going to LA especially the second half of the athletic and stadium i did do a fan dual tv uh last year so this past season i spent you

know one or two times a month going to la especially the second half of the season yeah for our shows in studio for fan dual tv so uh that was you know it's good to make it out there you can kind of dabble into doing that you're able to go to lakers games clippers games kind of mixing everything at once get work done yeah connections done game coverage done so um you know a lot of west coast travel to la for fan dual tv but other than that i'm buffering in chicago a lot of the time it's cold there man it gets cold in the wintertime once you're there i'm born and raised there so i'm used to it i am not i can't i do it where you got where you guys from i'm from california now i'm in nashville got it i'm from Jersey now. I'm here got you Vegas full-time. It's hot here. Yeah

Can we get Nashville an NBA team Like can we just I got an idea I've heard there in the WNBA mix Okay, I have heard that through my source jaw is not fine in the West So I think they add the team in Vegas and then they just slide the Grizzlies over to Nashville Which is a better economic market than Memphis anyway. Is it? Yeah. Way better.

Okay. There's a lot more money in Nashville than Memphis right now. Get the Grizzlies in the Eastern Conference. Add the new Vegas team that we all know is coming. Right. It's yeah. I mean, I think in due time. In due time.

Yeah. Listen, I get asked. I got asked last year. It's happening within six months. I said it's probably, you know, several years away. You have the TV deal. it's happening within six months. I said, it's probably several years away. You have the TV deal, then you collect a bargaining agreement. I think once the league gets past their TV agreement,

I think you start to look at expansion and things of that sort. But I mean, listen, the in-season tournament final four is gonna be held in Vegas. There's a lot of stuff being done around Vegas, not only NBA, WNBA. We saw the Las Vegas Aces.

I mean, Kelsey Plum, those guys, I mean, Becky Hammond has those women balling out right now. So. Yeah, they took over the city. Yeah, they took over the city. So it's clear between them, the Raiders, NBA can be done here. And I think, you know, once the CBA,

now it's signed and done, TV deal, I think, you know, Vegas is definitely a prime market. What did you think of NBA Con? Did you go? I did not make it there. Oh, okay. Yeah, I thought it was interesting that they're going to do that every year. Yeah, I mean, I think, like I said earlier,

Summer League has become such a big landmark event now, more than ever. It's like definitely times 50 since the time I got here. I was bumper to bumper when I was on the road. I was like, this is never I was on the road yeah even last year I mean the traffic has been crazy I gotta say I don't know if it's f1 I don't know if it's UFC right you know the other night there's a lot going on here obviously summer league the traffic's been great it's never been this bad it takes me like 30 minutes to get from one hotel the other yeah one

point last night two nights ago so. So if you're NBA commissioner tomorrow, what's the first thing you do? First thing I do. That's a great question. I mean, and don't give me something small. I mean, I want you to turn the league upside down. Ooh. Okay. Listen, I think if you watch the NFL,

the way they're able to make the draft such a big thing, and the NBA draft is a big thing as well. It's different. What if you made it open to the outdoor, open to the fan? Again, the NBA draft is open to fans. Barclays Center, Barclays Arena, it's been done you know with fans involved masters were gone wherever they held it it's a caucus like it's done around fans um i don't know like could you make a multi-day thing two three day event two day event there's obviously two rounds

you do round one one day we're on to the next day you put me on the spot that's like one of the first things i'm with things idea i feel like i could think of right there yeah they should make it more exciting yeah i mean it's a big deal yeah i mean as someone who lives in nashville who literally watched them do exactly what you just described with the nfl draft on broadway and take over everything outdoors i gotta say though yeah you know uh adam silver was big on getting this play-in tournament done yeah and i think that's been a major success because you have teams that are fighting for that positioning.

Now, like they have something to play for. All throughout the regular season, especially the last, like the last week, two weeks of the regular season since the play-in tournament's been enacted, it's been by far the most fun, you know, for sure, since I've been, you know, covered in the league. I love it.

And now you have, you know, the in-season tournament. I think that's gotten a little bit of, you know, people don't know how to take it, but I you you see how the in-season tournament uh the playing tournament went you know i'm very curious to see how adam silver pulls off the uh the in-season tournament playing tournament got a lot of hate at first i remember on social media but now it's like the teams that are getting through like the miami heat and the lakers just made the semi-finals and it's like every team has an actual chance. I think it's good. I think anything that dissuades from tanking, I'm on board with. Anything that gives you more opportunity.

I was disappointed to see the Mavs set a couple of players at the end of the season. Tanking is a strong word. I think they purposely did not want to be in the play-in tournament. It didn't seem like it, yeah. I think that's a strong way of phrasing it but you know do you think that tanking needs do you think the system needs to be tweaked to avoid people from tanking even more than it already has been i don't i mean you know there's always fines now there's the different policies that are being enacted but i don't think this is like a novel concept you know there's been some essence of

trying to jockey for lottery draft positioning forever done for forever so as much as i i think the league would love for there to be a quick fix i just it's it's tough yeah so forget the stats just based off your own eyes and experience who's on your mount rushmore of players all time this is really hard it doesn't have to be in order just top four or five people yeah i mean i think you know i'm chicago i've got to go with mj of course lebron being this generation kobe uh those are three right there i have four you know, it's tough for me. Again, this is just guys that I – This is your starting – the aliens have invaded.

Space Jam is here. This is your starting five to save the fate of the universe. I'll go with Magic Johnson. You got to have him up there and probably go – MJ at the two. So he needs a center now. Yeah. Listen, center, you can give me anyone.

Shaq, Kareem, Hakeem. Okay. What do you guys say? Yeah, I say Shaq. Yeah, I would take Shaq, although I would have Tim Duncan on my team. Instead of – I think he never really got the flowers that he deserved. He was a power forward though, right?

He was a power forward, and his game does not translate well to what is now going on in 2023, I think. You think his game wouldn't work right now? No, I mean, I think he'd make it work, but I think that the way he played then was different now with all the elbow jumpers, a lot of the mid-range stuff that he did, the back-to-the-basket stuff.

You know, even as we saw Spencer talk earlier, like the back-to-the-basket four is not a thing of the past. It's cool to see these days that not as athletic players like Jokic and Luka are actually dominating compared to just being insanely athletic. And do you think we're going to see, right? I mean, like this might be the,

I'm not even sure the U S team would beat an all international team right now. Is this going to keep getting more and more in favor of international players? Or are we going to fix our AU system and get back to maybe a little bit more of where we were a few years ago in terms of dominance yeah i mean we'll see what happens the olympics yeah i think that's always a good good kind of benchmark um you know we have the people world cups this summer um but listen i mean yannis yokic and bead obviously all being

luca abroad yeah luca like i think it's only good for the game to have guys like that, um, kind of shining and, you know, provide some good, good balance. What's next for you, man. And where can people find out what you're working on? Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm here at summer league the rest of the week. Um, you know, you can obviously catch me on, on Twitter, Shams, Shania Instagram Shams NBA, uh, do all my writing for The Athletic. Do my video for Stadium and FanDuel TV.

I've been kind of at this for a while now. Just got to keep growing and keep getting better. Love it, man. Thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me. Thanks for watching, guys. Peace.