Warriors star Draymond Green calls early NBA MVP leak ’embarrassing’ for league originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The “NBA on Prime Video” broadcast announced Sunday night that Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had won his second consecutive MVP award – the only problem was ESPN’s Shams Charania had made the announcement almost 12 hours prior.
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Many in the basketball world, from tv personalities to players, had thoughts on the situation, with Warriors star forward Draymond Green being one of them.
“I think the NBA has to do something about that,” Green said on the latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show.” “Like, ultimately, you’re the NBA. You control the media. Shams is an NBA reporter with ESPN, who is a partner of the NBA. To tweet at six o’clock in the morning who the NBA MVP is, it’s actually embarrassing.”
“I thought that was pretty pathetic, if I’m being honest,” Green added.
While some were upset, Charania joined “The Pat McAfee Show” and defended his actions, explaining that he believed he had a responsibility to report the news – even if it comes before a scheduled release.
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“This is a massive story,” Charania said. “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.”
However, Green had a different belief when it came to the premature release of the news.
“It makes our league look like we have no organization,” Green said. “… Like we can’t hold the winner of the most prestigious individual award in the NBA, we can’t hold those results until it’s actually time to be announced. That was a little disappointing.
“There’s no way that can happen. If there’s supposed to be an announcement on Amazon Prime, the announcement has to happen on Amazon Prime. This is something Commissioner [Adam] Silver has to do something about. This this can’t happen.”
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