NBA draft: ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania tipped picks all night, with just one whiff

While the 2019 NBA draft moved along smoothly on ESPN Thursday night, much of the drama actually played out on Twitter, with Adrian Wojnarowski attempting to tip picks and scoop his former understudy, Shams Charania.

Both Wojnarowski and Charania, who currently works for both Stadium and The Athletic, spent most of the evening doing what they do best: tipping off draft picks on social media before they could be announced by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. After sitting out during the draft’s first three picks, it was Wojnarowski who won the first round, successfully tipping off 15 first round draft picks, compared to Charania’s 12 picks.

During the second round, Charania successfully tipped off 12 picks, while Wojnarowksi slowed his pace to nine, leaving the pair in a tie with 24 correct draft picks each. It’s worth noting that both were able to break news on Twitter while juggling broadcast responsibilities, with Charania offering live analysis on Stadium and Wojnarowski reporting on both picks and trades during ESPN’s live draft coverage.

“Woj, I’m begging you as a friend. Just turn your phone off. Go to bed,” SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt told Wojnarowski following the draft. “Give yourself a six hour window, and then wake up and fight again another day.”

Unlike last year, Wojnarowski was freed up by ESPN to report the picks on social media before they were announced on the network. Maybe that explains why he was much less creative this time around with his verbs than last year, when he peppered his tweets with words like “targeting” and “tantalized.”

It was also Wojnarowski who broke the news that the Sixers would be trading up four spots to the No. 20 pick to select Washington standout Mattise Thybulle.

When it came to the Sixers’ second trade of the night, both Wojnarowski and Charania were edged out by my colleague Keith Pompey.

The only whiff of the night came from Charania, who initially reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers were “targeting” Kentucky forward Keldon Johnson with the No. 26 pick. Charania quickly updated his reporting to note that the Cavaliers pivoted away from Johnson to select Belmont University guard Dylan Windler (and still managed to beat Wojnarowski with the news).

Wojnarowski made a name for himself during the 2011 NBA Draft, where he took the league by storm tweeting draft picks before they could be announced on ESPN. It wasn’t so long ago that Wojnarowski was mentoring Charania at his former Yahoo! Sports NBA site, The Vertical. When ESPN hired Wojnarowski away in May 2017, Charania took over his spot at Yahoo! for a year before leaving to join both Stadium and The Athletic.

The New York Times’ Marc Stein (who was forced out of ESPN to make room for Wojnarowski) didn’t spend the night trying to keep up with Wojnarowski and Charania. But Stein started off the evening with a bang, correctly predicting the evening’s first five picks and a trade between the Phoenix Suns and Minnesota Timberwolves (which included former Sixers power forward Dario Saric) an hour before the draft even began.