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Adrian Wojnarowski (/wɜːrdʒˈnaʊski/;[1] born March 4, 1969), nicknamed Woj, is an American basketball executive and former sports columnist and reporter. During his years as an NBA insider for ESPN and Yahoo! Sports, he became one of the NBA's preeminent reporters. Wojnarowski is largely credited with ushering in an era of Twitter-driven, breaking news-focused NBA reporting, in which top reporters are NBA celebrities in their own right. He retired from reporting in 2024 and is currently the general manager of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies men's basketball team.
Adrian Wojnarowski | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 4, 1969 Bristol, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | St. Bonaventure University |
| Occupation(s) | Sports reporter, columnist |
| Years active | 1986–2024 |
| Coaching career | |
| Current position | |
| Title | General manager |
| Team | St. Bonaventure |
| Conference | A-10 |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2024–present | St. Bonaventure (GM) |
Personal life
Wojnarowski was born in Bristol, Connecticut, on March 4, 1969.[2] His parents were Polish immigrants.[3] He graduated from Bristol Central High School in 1987 and from St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York, in 1991.[4] In May 2022, he received an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University.[5]
Wojnarowski currently lives in Glen Rock, New Jersey with his wife, Amy, and their two children, Ben and Annie.[6] He met Amy, who graduated from St. Bonaventure in 1992, through the college newspaper.[7]
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Wojnarowski began his career working for the Hartford Courant starting as a high school senior and continuing during college holidays. During his time in college, he interned at the Olean Times Herald in 1989, where the sports department put him to use writing highly critical pieces of St. Bonaventure's basketball team.[8] After graduating from college, he wrote for some smaller papers before becoming a columnist for the Fresno Bee in 1995.[9]
In 1997, he began to work for The Record in New Jersey. As a result of his work with The Record, he was named "Columnist of the Year" in 1997 and in 2002 by the Associated Press Sports Editors. During that time, he also contributed regularly to ESPN.com. In 2006, he published a New York Times best-seller: The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty.[4] On June 20, 2019, Wojnarowski was awarded the inaugural Tony Kubek Award for Media Excellence by the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in Michigan.[3]
Yahoo! Sports
In 2007, Wojnarowski left The Record and joined Yahoo! Sports full-time. In March 2009, he and Dan Wetzel wrote a story tying the Connecticut Huskies men's basketball program to several recruiting violations.[10] In 2010 the New York Post reported that Wojnarowski was being sued by the Penguin Group for failing to meet a deadline for a book covering the life of coach Jim Valvano. Wojnarowski responded that the problem was "a miscommunication between my agent and me" and said that he would be returning the money to Penguin Books.[11]
Over time, Wojnarowski shifted his emphasis from opinions columns[4] to breaking news.[9] He was widely considered one of the best NBA "scoopers"[9]— that is, he was frequently the first to report NBA signings, trades, and draft picks, which gave him a large advantage in the fast-moving social media space where "algorithms often prioritize being first, ... gain[ing] him tens of thousands of extra clicks."[12] He was so well-connected that on at least one occasion, a team executive said that his staff learned of a new signing from Wojnarowski before he had even announced it to the team.[9] His speed made him an Internet celebrity, and his scoops were referred to as "Woj Bombs"; his Twitter followers would sometimes respond to his breaking news tweets with "nuclear explosion" gifs for comedic effect.[13] Wojnarowski flexed his reporting muscle by repeatedly reporting NBA draft picks before the league announced them on its annual live telecast,[14][15] which he continued to do (in a more comedic form) after joining NBA broadcasting partner ESPN.[16][17]
However, Wojnarowski was accused of access journalism, providing favorable coverage to sources like Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars in exchange for scoops.[9] He reportedly attempted to pressure LeBron James to leak news to him by writing negative columns;[9][18] his reporting on James received some criticism for being biased and poorly sourced.[19][20][21] He was listed No. 1 in Sports Media Watch's Worst of Sports Media 2010 as a result of this criticism.[22]
Despite being from Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN is headquartered, and working for ESPN during his early career, Wojnarowski developed a strong rivalry with ESPN and many of its established NBA reporters, including Marc Stein and John Hollinger. Wojnarowski, who ran a lean operation at Yahoo!, reportedly resented ESPN's large staff and ample resources. Ric Bucher said that Wojnarowski had "a jihad against ESPN."[9] ESPN laid off several NBA reporters, including Stein, shortly before Wojnarowski joined ESPN in 2017.[23] One of the laid-off reporters, Ethan Strauss, started a Substack account that periodically published pieces highly critical of Wojnarowski.[24]
ESPN
Wojnarowski left Yahoo! Sports for ESPN on July 1, 2017, just before the start of NBA free agency that year, making his ESPN debut on the midnight edition of SportsCenter.[25] ESPN president John Skipper boasted that he hired Wojnarowski because "We wanted to be first [in breaking news], and we wanted to win."[26] During his years at ESPN, Wojnarowski mentored upcoming reporter Malika Andrews.[18]
While at ESPN, Wojnarowski continued to break news at a rapid rate. He won three consecutive National Sportswriter of the Year awards from the National Sports Media Association, in 2017, 2018, and 2019.[27] He was such a celebrity that during the 2024 presidential election campaign, Kamala Harris' staff reportedly asked him to break the news of Tim Walz's selection as Harris' running mate, although another outlet broke the news first.[28] In addition, Wojnarowski and his ESPN colleague Adam Schefter participated in commercials for T-Mobile and Samsung.[29]
Wojnarowski announced his retirement from the news industry in September 2024[30] after being diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer that March, although he stressed that as of December 2024, his long-term prognosis remained good.[28] Shams Charania succeeded him at ESPN.[31]
Rivalry with Shams Charania
During his time at Yahoo! Sports, Wojnarowski mentored a young Shams Charania, who later became Wojnarowski's chief rival for scoops after Wojnarowski left Yahoo! for ESPN.[32] Reeves Wiedeman wrote that "Charania and Wojnarowski have become celebrities in their own right [] by serving as vessels for the daily stream of news that holds NBA fans' attention even (and perhaps especially) when there aren't any games being played."[26] Frank Isola said that the Woj-Shams rivalry was "the only real rivalry left in the NBA."[18] However, the rivalry's focus on breaking news received criticism from some other reporters, including Isaac Chotiner, who quipped that "If Shams didn’t write [favorable stories to] get in good with his sources, he couldn't do the vital work of breaking news 43 seconds before everyone else."[33] (This was not an exaggeration: in 2021, Wojnarowski beat Charania to a key scoop, James Harden's trade to the Brooklyn Nets, by eight seconds.[34])
Beyond merely reporting news, Wojnarowski and Charania's knowledge allowed them to help shape events in the NBA. According to Wiedeman, "Wojnarowski has a grip on many of the NBA's front offices, while Charania has more of a foothold among agents and even many players."[26] Certain agents said that Wojnarowski's knowledge of the NBA was so vast that agents and teams privately consulted with him before making decisions.[26][18] In addition, the Washington Post reported that NBA front offices revised their information-sharing practices to limit leaks to Wojnarowski and Charania.[18] However, it was also said that NBA executives strategically leaked information to Wojnarowski and Charania to skirt the league's anti-tampering rules,[18] which prevent teams from recruiting other teams' players before the start of free agency.[35]
Feud with the Los Angeles Lakers
Although Wojnarowski maintained a good relationship with Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his circle,[36] his long-running feud with LeBron James spilled over into his relationship with the Lakers after Bryant retired in 2016 and James joined the Lakers in 2018. Wojnarowski correctly reported that Kawhi Leonard would not sign with the Lakers in 2019, which was seen as a victory over the Lakers,[37] who distrusted Wojnarowski's reporting and thus delayed signing role players for five days while waiting for Leonard to make a decision, allowing other teams to sign the best role players instead.[38] However, the roles were reversed when the Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook in 2021. Wojnarowski incorrectly reported that the Lakers were planning to trade for Buddy Hield, only for Charania to upstage him by correctly reporting the Westbrook trade 16 minutes later.[39]
In 2023, Awful Announcing reported that Wojnarowski had patched up the feud, at least with respect to James' agent and close friend Rich Paul.[40] In addition, in 2024, Wojnarowski and Charania clashed over conflicting reports that the Lakers were trying to hire either Dan Hurley or JJ Redick as their head coach, with Wojnarowski backing Hurley and Charania backing Redick.[41][42] Awful Announcing reported that Wojnarowski boosted Hurley's candidacy both to help Hurley, his family friend, leverage a larger contract extension out of the University of Connecticut and to help the Lakers leverage more favorable terms when signing Redick. However, Hurley denied the accusation.[43]
Josh Hawley incident
On July 10, 2020, Republican Senator Josh Hawley wrote a letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver questioning the propriety of the NBA allowing social justice statements on players' jerseys, but not support for law enforcement or anything critical of the Chinese Communist Party.[44][45] The NBA has business connections with China.[46] Wojnarowski, copied on the Hawley communication, replied to Hawley via email saying "fuck you". Wojnarowski apologized the same day to Hawley and ESPN;[47] ESPN called Wojnarowski's response "completely unacceptable behavior" and suspended Wojnarowski without pay[46] for two weeks.[48] Wojnarowski's outburst impressed even his critics, such as LeBron James, who tweeted "#FreeWOJ!!" following the suspension.[49]
St. Bonaventure
On September 19, 2024, Wojnarowski announced that he would become the general manager of the men's basketball team at St. Bonaventure University, his alma mater.[30] In doing so, he exchanged the remaining three years and $20 million on his ESPN contract for a $75,000 salary.[28]
Publications
- Wojnarowski, Adrian (January 19, 2006). The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty. Gotham Books. p. 416. ISBN 1-59240-186-4.
See also
References
External links
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