It now could also be lengthy forgotten as a result of Adrian Wojnarowski’s legendary run as an NBA insider was constructed on 280-word tweets, however earlier than the primary “Woj bomb,” as his information scoops are identified, he was an award-winning basic sports activities columnist for New Jersey’s Bergen Document.
When he left the paper in 2007 for a brand new enterprise referred to as Yahoo Sports activities, it was solely a 2.5-magnitude tremor. Whereas in hindsight the transfer could seem apparent with the tens of millions Wojnarowski would rake in, the ability he would amass and the numerous tales he would break, it wasn’t the case again then.
Actually, Wojnarowski as soon as advised me a narrative about one among his prime Bergen Document editors saying to him on the way in which out, “I’m apprehensive that nobody goes to listen to from you once more.”
Wojnarowski had the identical thought.
However the Yahoo Wojnarowski was probably the most dominant sports activities writers ever, not solely breaking almost each NBA story because the David to ESPN’s Goliath however then opining with biting commentaries in regards to the league and its largest names. He would go after everybody from David Stern to LeBron James. It was a sports activities journalism sight to behold.
This was the height of Wojnarowski’s powers, combining his reporting and writing potential to the very best stage.
Whereas he grew up in Bristol, CT, dwelling of ESPN, he seemingly by no means needed to be a part of the community. He would rail towards it with a Michael Jordan-like rage in his dedication to defeat it and its military of insiders, who did not have Woj’s relentlessness.
Any time ESPN did not credit score his Yahoo scoops, it simply added gas, the identical approach Jordan would take any actual or perceived slight personally.
By 2017, after a decade of domination, ESPN lastly had sufficient and made Wojnarowski such an unbelievable multi-million greenback supply, he needed to go. Whereas he was nonetheless on prime of all of the information at ESPN, he wasn’t Yahoo Woj, the place he reported with a scalpel and lower with an ax. At ESPN, he was nonetheless wonderful, simply not as robust.
His fame, although, and his omnipresence and his competitors with The Athletic’s Shams Charania grew to epic ranges as he added extra TV to associate with his tweets. Wojnarowski had as soon as been Charania’s mentor at Yahoo, and now they’d go head-to-head.
On Twitter, now X, they’d face off to find out the winner of the second in seconds. NBA followers on the location had memes able to go the second one among them dunked on the opposite. It was a sport inside the sport.
Whereas Wojnarowski didn’t have essentially the identical chunk at ESPN, he nonetheless added to his legend, seemingly bucking ESPN on the NBA Draft in 2018 by tipping with phrase performs on Twitter about groups being “locked in,” “tantalized” and “unlikely to withstand,” revealing the picks earlier than the community that paid him televised the alternatives.
In 2020, he additionally famously despatched Missouri Senator Josh Hawley a non-public electronic mail saying, “F— you” after Hawley despatched a letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver criticizing its relationship with China. That Woj bomb earned him a two-week suspension with out pay.
Over time, Wojnarowski grew to become extra a part of the league’s equipment. He was nonetheless as relentless across the clock, searching for perfection from his teammates, his sources and anybody he got here involved with. He performed to win and often did. Then he determined he had sufficient.
On Wednesday, Wojnarowski introduced that, at 55, with tens of millions within the financial institution, he was fantastic strolling away from round $20 million extra as a result of a brand new frontier within the faculty sport was provided to him. The person who has been texting and speaking with executives for almost 20 years will now be the lads’s basketball basic supervisor at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure.
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— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 18, 2024
Whereas the circumstances are completely different, Wojnarowski is displaying the identical excellent timing and belief of his intestine once more, as he did in 2007 when he left the Document. He may keep and gather his cash, however his ardour to dominate would require him to sleep solely three hours an evening. His starvation for the job had dissipated, however not his want to reign supreme. He doesn’t do half-measures.
On Wednesday, he put out an announcement on X that harkened again to these award-winning basic sports activities columnist days on the Document.
Wojnarowski wrote, “Time isn’t in limitless provide and I need to spend mine in methods which can be extra personally significant.”
A teenage NBA fan who grew up on his breaking tweets could not understand that the person may write. However she or he certainly will always remember his title.
His choice in 2007 to develop into an NBA insider turned out to be legendary. The one proof you wanted was the affect of his remaining Woj bomb, as he introduced on his personal phrases he was strolling away a legend.
GO DEEPER
Adrian Wojnarowski is now the GM at St. Bonaventure: What does that imply in faculty basketball?
(Prime photograph of Adrian Wojnarowski in 2022: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE by way of Getty Photos)
