Shams Charania is the Senior NBA Insider for ESPN.

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Shams was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, raised by Pakistani-immigrants. He attended Loyola University Chicago, majoring in Communications. As a senior in high school and freshman in college, Shams began writing for RealGM, and received credentials from Milwaukee and the Indiana Pacers, making long drives to cover both teams and attend games. As a sophomore, he got his first big scoop: then-Bulls forward Luol Deng had been traded to Cleveland for former All-Star Andrew Bynum. He then went on to work for Yahoo Sports and then The Athletic before joining ESPN in 2025.