{"id":584845,"date":"2026-02-05T21:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/584845\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:11:18","slug":"social-media-turns-on-espns-shams-charania-after-giannis-stays-put","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/584845\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media turns on ESPN’s Shams Charania after Giannis stays put"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the driving forces in the national-media conversation around Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> has been ESPN breaking-news specialist Shams Charania, and Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> fans were happy to let him know about it when the NBA trade deadline passed Feb. 5 with Antetokounmpo still on the team.<\/p>\n

Even Bucks coach Doc Rivers was taking a playful jab two days earlier. Not long after ESPN announced that Giannis and his brothers, Alex and Thanasis, would be coaching in the all-star celebrity game<\/a> later this month with Charania among the celebrities on their team, Rivers joked, “He did inform me that he’s going to put Shams on the trading block today. And he’s just gonna listen to offers.”<\/p>\n

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The Bucks doubled down on that sentiment by posting video of Rivers’ comments with a mock post about Charania in trade discussions. That came after the deadline, not long after a post of a yawning-face emoji shortly after Charania<\/a> and others reported that the Bucks would not be moving their superstar.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 28, Charania posted<\/a> that Antetokounmpo was “ready for a new home,” and though that felt like a greater degree of finality than previous iterations of the drama around Antetokounmpo, it’s something Bucks fans have come to expect from ESPN writers and national writers in general.<\/p>\n

More: Read Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s love letter to Milwaukee, the Bucks<\/a><\/p>\n

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More: NBA trade deadline live tracker today, Giannis rumors and news<\/a><\/p>\n

A sampling of the feedback:<\/p>\n

For his part, Giannis posted to Instagram<\/a> a message of, “Legends don’t chase. They attract,” with a famous clip from “The Wolf of Wall Street” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jordan Belfort declares that he’s not going anywhere (warning: profane language in the video).<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Social media turns on ESPN’s Shams Charania after Giannis stays put<\/a><\/p>\n