This story was originally published by Dead Spin
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski detonated his final bomb.
After years of breaking NBA news, he decided to retire from journalism. He’s taking a new role as the general manager of St. Bonaventure basketball, the institution that he graduated from in 1991.
Immediately after he broke the news of his own retirement, colleagues, fans, and even the NBA put out statements applauding Wojnarowski’s dedication to covering the sport so closely.
“Sources close to the situation say that his future is bright,” the NBA released in a statement.
Wojnarowski received more fanfare than some of the players he covered when they decided to hang up the sneakers. Woj wasn’t grabbing rebounds or shooting threes, but in a league so obsessed with player empowerment and mobility, his breaking news had become a staple of how fans consumed basketball content.
He changed the breaking news game forever.
Prior to Wojnarowski being hired at Yahoo! Sports in 2007, long gone were the days of waiting for the print newspaper to be delivered to read box scores and learn of player transactions. Instead, in the 2000s, basketball fans would huddle around their television screens and await “SportsCenter” to deliver the latest breaking news.
If you were lucky, a “breaking news” graphic would appear at the bottom of your screen during regularly scheduled programming to inform you of a major news event happening in sports.
But Wojnarowski captured the momentum of social media and used it as a tool to reshape sports journalism. In an era where people want everything instantaneously, Wojnarowski became a cult hero. There was no more waiting at all. You could turn on his social media push notifications, and your phone would ring as soon as news was announced.
He would drop breaking news seemingly out of nowhere, as fans nicknamed these scoops “Woj Bombs.” They became an instant yet consistent way for NBA fans to be in the know with up-to-date information.
The consistent accuracy of Wojnarowski’s reports made him instantly credible in league circles. Of course, he worked very closely with agents to secure these scoops before any local media members could break the news. But sometimes, players even learned they were on the move through Wojnarowski.
In 2022, Tyrese Haliburton famously learned of his trade from the Sacramento Kings to the Indiana Pacers through a phone call with his agent and Woj.
Wojnarowski quickly and somewhat seamlessly transformed himself from a basketball columnist that was fearless with injecting opinion to one of the top objective journalists the sport has ever seen. During his sendoff at ESPN, he was flowered with nice words from fellow longtime insiders, including Adam Schefter, Jeff Passan and Pete Thammel, who published the story about his retirement and new career path with St. Bonaventure.
Breaking news isn’t easy, especially the way Wojnarowski did it. He dedicated most of his adult life to the craft.
“It takes over your life. You can’t kind of do the job; you have to live the job, and he was done living the job,” Schefter explained. “Now he gets to do what he wants, which is exactly how it should be.”
According to reports, Wojnarowski left $20 million on the table to leave ESPN. His former protege Shams Charania emerged as a potential candidate to replace him. Charania was mentored by Wojnarowski early in his career and is now poised to take over as the top NBA insider.
It just goes to show that Wojnarowski changed the breaking news game forever.
