(This story was updated to add new information.)
Longtime NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski announced Wednesday that he is retiring from ESPN.
Wojnarowski, who has been the network’s most visible and prolific basketball news-breaker for the past seven years, wrote in a statement on social media that he has decided to leave journalism to become the general manager of the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure, which is his alma mater.
‘I understand the commitment required in my role and it’s an investment that I’m no longer driven to make,’ Wojnarowski wrote in a statement posted on X, the web site where he repeatedly broke some of the most significant news in the NBA over more than a decade.
‘Time isn’t in endless supply and I want to spend mine in ways that are more personally meaningful.’
For the man known simply as ‘Woj,’ that meant a return to St. Bonaventure, the college in western New York from which he graduated in 1991.
The Bonnies’ athletic department said in a news release that Wojnarowski’s role with the men’s basketball program will include a wide range of responsibilities, including the handling of name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities and fundraising.
‘Woj is the perfect person to fill this new role, combining his intimate knowledge of St. Bonaventure and our Franciscan values with a deep network of relationships he has built across the worlds of professional and intercollegiate basketball,’ athletic director Bob Beretta said in a statement.
‘The fact that the preeminent journalist in his field is willing to walk away from a lucrative media career to serve his alma mater in a support role is a testament to his love and passion for Bona’s.’
Wojnarowski, 55, has become one of the most well-known personalities in the NBA over the past decade without ever having stepped on the court. He has as many followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, as the official accounts of the two teams in this year’s NBA Finals (the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks) combined.
A Connecticut native who grew up just a few miles from ESPN’s headquarters, Wojnarowski got his first byline as a sports journalist when he was a senior in high school, picking up some occasional work for The Hartford Courant. After graduating from St. Bonaventure, he spent the early days of his career as a reporter and columnist for The Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican-American, The Fresno Bee and The Bergen Record, which is now part of the USA TODAY Network.
In 2006, Wojnarowski made the leap to Yahoo Sports and began to establish himself as an authoritative source of NBA news and information. He reported not only on league-wide trends and issues but also on the individual transacations, trades, hirings and firings − the minute details that used to be relegated to a newspaper’s agate page, but that NBA fans craved.
Wojnarowski also helped pave the way for the emergence of the ‘insider’ role in sports journalism, while developing a reputation for ruthlessness is his pursuit of the news.
‘He is a complete freaking animal,’ longtime NBA reporter Frank Isola told The New Republic in a 2014 profile. ‘Adrian is basically a reporter on steroids.’
In time, Wojnarowski had become such a dominant force in NBA journalism that he was consistently beating ESPN on major news stories − which likely contributed to the network’s decision to bring him over to its side by hiring him in 2017.
In the years since, Wojnarowski became an almost ubiquitous face on ESPN’s basketball programming during the season, and the man who often created headlines and fueled news cycles with transactional news in the offseason. His news-breaking social-media posts became known as ‘Woj bombs.’
‘His work ethic is second to none,’ ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. ‘He’s extraordinarily talented and fearless. He has led the industry at ESPN, and his dedication to the craft and to fans is legendary. While we will miss his daily output, we completely understand his decision to make a lifestyle change and slow down a bit.’
Wojnarowski’s departure leaves a high-profile hole in ESPN’s news-breaking apparatus. The network has, especially in recent years, based much of its programming around the news and storylines uncovered by top reporters on key sports − including Adam Schefter on the NFL, Jeff Passan on MLB and Pete Thamel on college sports.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
