ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi has few peers in sports when it comes to getting big stories first.
While he makes it look easy, it’s much more difficult than fans can imagine. Case in point: Overnight Monday into early Tuesday morning, Wojnarowksi hung out in an airport waiting on his latest huge scoop.
Woj was first to report (at 2:01 a.m. ET) that the Los Angeles Clippers had acquired 10-time All-Star James Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers in a blockbuster trade involving six other players and four draft picks.
Wojnarowksi used his latest The Woj Pod podcast to detail how getting the story required hanging out all night in the Newark Liberty International Airport.
BREAKING: The Philadelphia 76ers have agreed on a trade to send guard James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/wAyuJKMfAw
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 31, 2023
“Really got into it Monday night,” Wojnarowksi said. “I was at Newark Airport, I was getting ready to fly to L.A. to go out and be out with our NBA Countdown crew this week and NBA Today. It was suggested to me to not get on a plane, that you might be — it’s always my worst fear with this job that you’re on a plane and the wireless is spotty and you can’t get to what you need to do.
“So I sat in Newark Airport, watched the place close down and then almost start to reopen again. So from like 5 p.m., they threw me out of the [United Airlines] lounge at around 10:30 p.m. when it closed and then I just went and sat downstairs until I left about 3:30 in the morning.
“That seems to be how the Clippers and 76ers work together, late into the night.”
By the way, a J.D. Power study has ranked the Newark airport dead last in customer satisfaction the past two years, so it’s not like Woj hung out in luxurious accommodations. But fans can easily picture him sitting there, hammering away on his laptop, working the phone, trying to land the story.
