Draymond Green Calls Out NBA for ‘Embarrassing' MVP Leak
The NBA officially announced Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the Most Valuable Player on Sunday for his second-straight season.
However, their reveal was spoiled by ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania, who shared the breaking news on social media and on the website hours before the announcement on Amazon Prime’s Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons pregame show.
That drew frustration from the “NBA on Prime” crew, including Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin, and Dirk Nowitzki, who roasted Charania for spoiling it early.
Meanwhile, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green blasted the league on Monday for allowing this to happen and ruin the big moment.
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“I think the NBA has to do something about that. Ultimately, you’re the NBA, you control the media,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show,” adding, “Shams is an NBA reporter with ESPN who is a partner with the NBA.”
“To tweet at 6 o’clock in the morning who the NBA MVP is, it’s actually embarrassing. Like, it makes our league look like we have no organization … Like that’s child’s play,” he said.
“This is something Commissioner Silver has to do something about,” Green said, indicating that if the announcement was supposed to be on Amazon Prime, they need to make sure that’s where it is announced first.
He called the early leak of the NBA MVP winner “pretty pathetic” and urged the league to address the matter for future awards.
Green said he first thought the early leak was fake until he searched some more on social media and found it was actually true.
The Warriors star also congratulated Gilgeous-Alexander on winning the award. The Thunder star officially claimed it on Monday night ahead of the Thunder’s Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
Charania regularly shares breaking news on potential or upcoming trades, free-agent signings, and injury updates.
The ESPN NBA insider defended his early leak of the MVP on Monday morning, speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show,” saying that when he has big news early, he will always report it.
“My job is to report the news. That’s what I wake up thinking about. That’s what I go to sleep thinking about,” Charania said.
Even though the announcement arrived earlier than some felt was necessary, many individuals felt SGA was the strong favorite to win the award. Some debates emerged that it could be a battle between SGA and the former two-time winner, Nikola Jokic, who finished second in the voting and points totals.
While there could have been a big surprise, the award winner seemed likely for weeks leading up to the official announcement, but it seems Green wanted to have more of a build-up to the NBA revealing it live, rather than an insider doing so early.
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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 6:41 PM.