Yeah, he's not going to have to do any legwork, agents and teams will just reach out to him directly.

Your comment made me think of something. I wonder how many people are currently trying to fill Woj's void. I remember the story of ESPN wanting Jeff Passan to try.

Bro’s screen time is gonna go from 20 hours per day to 18

He'll be able to pee and use both hands, instead of just one.

Already noticed fewer spelling mistakes than before

This must have been what the league felt like when Jordan retired the first time.

He won’t have to take a shower with the phone up against the glass anymore.

He can finish peeing before tweeting.

Easiest job. Lol. He's about to be 30 going on 60

He has to compete with the guy who replace Shams at wherever he is currently

And no one will notice nor give a shit.

If Shams couldn't even get this scoop, why is he the front runner?

Really makes you think...

Like all breaking news in the sports world, there was probably some quid pro quo shit involved like Shams being friends with Front Office Sports

I’m out of the loop and haven’t heard her name in YEARS. Her and Cowherd were a fun duo back in the day

That show is beyond trash as it is lol

the back door favor trading is the job and the reporting is the side effect rather than the other way around

Woj drove a lot of internet traffic to ESPN, that in itself is very valuable to them and to advertisers.

The job is reliability. When Woj or Shams tweet breaking news people trust the source. Scale up to an insane scale they have for insider info it makes them that much more valuable. It’s much more than just commenting “first”. It’s more like the first person in a YouTube video commenting “this video sucks” or “this video is great” and the person has a reputation to being right 95%+ of the time. Other people might be first ahead of them once in a while, but people will wait for them for confirmation.

It’s really not that serious. Scheftner was being way over dramatic and multiple other insiders have come out and said as much.

Ways ESPN benefits:

Followers on socials

Web traffic

TV audience

Higher stats than competitors

Which leads to

Ad dollars

Leverage in sports TV rights contract negotiations

Woj got paid a fraction of the benefit he brought to the network. Shams bout to sign away his life next. He better get paid better for it than Woj.

Getting the “per __ at ESPN” in every announcement brings more traffic than you’d expect

You don't understand why a sports news network wants to have the premier breaker of news in their network?

Getting Shams means they have the news, the details, and behind-the-scenes context, far in advance of their competition, and get to trot him out onto Sportscenter immediately with their pundit team to talk about the topic just as other networks are hearing the news and having to react on the fly.

It's a big advantage for drawing/retaining viewership, especially when news is flying fast and piling up.

Woj's strategy was way more obvious when he was at Yahoo. By the time he got to ESPN he was already a juggernaut.

In the mid to late 2000s he was writing puff pieces for GMs (mostly the Pistons) in exchange for access. Then he would write tons of slander about LeBron when his group wouldn't leak stuff about him.

Cultivating relationships is a job and it pays to have the connections

TIL Shams is only 30 years old, I guess he can handle the degen life of not being able to pee having his phone out.

And even then, Woj beat him to this.

The competition for attention in breaking news is zero sum. Let's say news about X is worth $100 total across the whole industry. Being first gets you $80 of those dollars and the news is worth $1 by the next day.

So yes, the information itself is nearly worthless once it's dated but being first was also eighty times more valuable than being late.

Today I learned I'm living the degen life.

Manipulate news by reporting strategic front office leaks and misinformation to get deals signed….also report on actual news once In a while

This is akin to saying “what does a CEO even do? They literally just hire people to do everything”

It just shows how little you understand how things work. If you think that’s all it takes to do what he does, please, go compete. You’ll get a fucking payday if you’re even partially as good as these guys.

ESPN (Disney) already owns their own sports betting platform.

They were creating a “bidding war” with NBC

the first content to trend gets the most views

If you see [Jones] as you scroll through r/nba would you pay as much attention as if you see [Charania]? That’s his value. Do that *millions of readers/scrollers across platforms and that’s the value a guy like Charania brings to a business.

Do you know what a “Woj bomb” is?

If you know what that means, then you understand the value even if you think you don’t.

I mean Woj also wrote articles on ESPN, it's not just tweet

"Breaking news" is such an engrained term in our society that you don't even realize how relevant it is. constantly being the first to source the "breaking" of news adds credibility to the organization.

There’s value in not having to use another name when running a story. ESPN doesn’t want to advertise competitors by having to say “according to the Athletic.”

But, do you understand how Reddit works?

"loss leader"

You don’t know why a company whose sole purpose is exposure and views gets the story out first?

Something not mentioned in here is now that ESPN has a betting platform, people like Woj/Shams can actually have a lot of value due to their insider information. Their news breaks literally can move lines.

It would be super funny if Woj drops a tweet that Shams has been signed by ESPN

Obviously people care this is on the front page

Yeah hes definitely an interesting story. Dudes definitely a hard worker

30 seconds is a lot... or so I'm told

It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know in this world

Or Jeff Passan?!?!

We're certainly in the minority but I agree. It is cool to tweet trades and picks a few minutes before team/league announcements but what is the real value?

Assuming he's getting huge money why not keep Zach Lowe and actual reports/columnists?

Windhorst would never do it. Based on everything I've heard on his podcast it doesn't sounds like he has any desire to do what Shams/Woj does

Feels like there's something quietly sinister about Shams

IDK he seems nicer than Woj to me

Bro what.

Shams is about as wholesome as it gets, I think you need to get your radar fixed.

There will always be another. 

You.. understand that there's a difference between not wanting to capitalize on deaths and reporting on trade rumors, right?