Adrian Wojnarowski may be getting the last laugh on his former protégé.
Joun Ourand of Puck reports this week that Shams Charania, who was just hired by ESPN as their new lead NBA reporter, will be making significantly less at the network than his predecessor Wojnarowski did. Ourand notes that Wojnarowski was making roughly $7 million per year at ESPN. While Charania’s exact salary figure is not known at this time, Ourand says that Charania is making “less than half” of what Wojnarowski made.
Those numbers make sense in the context of ESPN’s efforts to cut costs of late. Just a couple of weeks ago, they made the surprising decision to lay off veteran NBA writer Zach Lowe, a fan favorite, due to reported concerns over Lowe’s seven-figure salary.
Of course, $3 million-plus a year is still nothing to sneeze at for Charania, who is still young enough at 30 years old to work his way up and can also recoup some cash through some of his other media ventures. Wojnarowski, who announced his retirement from reporting last month, also seems to be rooting for Charania and recently shared a classy message for his ex-mentee.
