The Shams Cam Was As Boring As You Thought It Would Be

Breaking news isn’t as glamorous as you think it is.

What’s it like to a be top NBA newsbreaker on the day of the trade deadline? Not terribly exciting, it turns out. 

Watch Stadium, Shams Charania’s employer, put the reporter wunderkind in a conference room and broadcast a live stream on Twitch eerily similar to hostage footage showing him typing on his phone as the deadline creeped closer. 

The stream had no audio, only one camera angle and a live feed of Charania’s tweets running on the lefthand side. The broadcast peaked at about 2,000 concurrent viewers. 

Viewers got to watch in real time as Charania worked his sources to learn juicy bits of info such as the Clippers waiving veteran center Marcin Gortat. 

All the while, viewers roasted Shams in the chat for getting beaten to every scoop by rival/mentor Adrian Wojnarowski. 

Even if you thought it might be interesting to watch Shams type out the tweet detailing the Magic’s trade for Markelle Fultz, it was literally impossible to differentiate between Charania texting various NBA sources and him sending a tweet. 

The most interesting things revealed during the stream were that Charania wears a suit to work and that he uses his left thumb and right index finger to type on his phone. That’s about it. 

People often want to get into sports media because they think it’ll be exciting to stay involved with something they’re passionate about. In reality, you might just be sitting in a conference room with a camera above your head while 2,000 people watch you text and tweet. Or you’re sitting in a conference room watching a guy sitting in a conference room and writing about it. It’s not as glamorous as you think it is.