Adrian Wojnarowski’s sports media career came to an abrupt end with his shocking announcement that he is leaving ESPN to become the general manager of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program.
And as is often the case anytime anyone — or in this case, a career — comes to an end, the immediate response was a flood of tributes highlighting all of the positives of the legacy left behind.
Make no mistake, Woj is a legend and a true pioneer in the sports media world. But while there were no shortage of eulogies to be found regarding Wojnarowski’s retirement on Wednesday, what you didn’t see were true-logies, examining both the positives and negatives of his impact on the industry.
So let’s do that.
At this point, the positives have been well documented, but in case you need a reminder, you can find many of them here. Long story short, Woj went from local reporter to acclaimed columnist and insider before almost singlehandedly launching a new era of sports journalism dominated by breaking news, behind-the-scenes insight and social media.
You don’t become the preeminent news-breaker in not just basketball, but all of sports, without a tireless work ethic and Woj’s was unbeatable. And not only was he was better connected than the rest of his peers, but he also had the foresight to turn his scoops into currency to the point that ESPN seemingly got so tired of crediting his reports that it opted to just hire him away from the competition.
Simply put, if there’s a Mount Rushmore of NBA media members, one of the four spots belongs to the Woj.
But despite what most social media tributes would have you believe, that doesn’t tell the entire story.
While one could certainly debate how some of his old Yahoo columns — especially those critical of LeBron James — have aged, the bulk of Wojnarowski’s legacy is tied to his seven-year run at ESPN. And it didn’t take long for Wojnarowski to become a polarizing figure at the Worldwide Leader, as his arrival in 2017 was immediately preceded by a round of layoffs that saw the likes of NBA writers Marc Stein, Henry Abbott and Ethan Sherwood Strauss lose their jobs.
To be clear, there’s no direct evidence that Wojnarowski had any input in such layoffs and it’s worth noting that they came at a time ESPN had let go of more than 100 employees. Still, that was the leap that many made at the time and it was a reasonable conclusion to jump to; Stein had been a longtime rival of Wojnarowski’s on the NBA beat, Abbott is close with former ESPN John Hollinger, who Woj had famously been critical of and Strauss had previously written a piece critical of those aforementioned Yahoo columns.
Wrote Deadspin’s Kevin Draper at the time:
The question, then, is this: Did Wojnarowski explicitly tell ESPN to clear out employees to make room for his arrival, or did ESPN simply do it for him? (Wojnarowski didn’t respond to requests for comment.) Several—though not all—ESPNers in the NBA group I spoke with believe it is the former. Abbott is close with Grizzlies exec and former ESPNer John Hollinger, a notorious Wojnarowski enemy, they say, and Stein has been his biggest competitor for years. A piece Sherwood Strauss penned seven years ago criticizing Wojnarowski has been passed around ESPN the last several days as if to say Look, that’s why he’s gone.
Again, any evidence that Wojnarowski — who wasn’t even an official ESPN employee at the time — played a role in his rivals and critics losing their jobs is circumstantial at best. Still, considering that sports media jobs aren’t exactly easy to come by, even the idea that he might have put his thumb on the scale seemingly cast a shadow over his arrival in Bristol.
And then there’s the matter of how Wojnarowski went about getting his scoops. Like Mike Tomlin said earlier this week, I can’t give you all of the ingredients to the hot dog, you might not like it. But while all that goes into the scoops game might be just as messy as — if not messier than — the inside of frankfurter, Woj also had a habit of advertising his ingredients in bold, colorful letters.
Such was the case when he insisted that the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers weren’t negotiating a James Harden trade, which contradicted reporting from his colleague, Brian Windhorst. One day later, Harden was, in fact, traded to the Sixers, with some suggesting that Wojnarowski’s reporting — which to be fair, was couched by him calling the situation “fluid” — was aimed at benefitting Brooklyn’s leverage.
A similar situation played out this past summer in the form of the entire Dan Hurley-Lakers saga. We covered the story extensively at the time. But the long and short of it is that Hurley was never actually interested in leaving UConn so much as he was looking for leverage his contract negotiations, while the Lakers were similarly more interested in generating their own leverage against JJ Redick. And considering his extensive ties to the Hurley family, many believed that Wojnarowski was more than happy to help publicly facilitate the whole ordeal.
(Hurley, for what it’s worth, has denied such accusations)
Of course, Wojnarowski wouldn’t be the first reporter to use his platform to benefit his sources and it’s also worth mentioning that his status as a titan of the industry put him under the microscope more than most of his peers. Still, it was curious to see him celebrated as a beacon of journalism on Wednesday, when you only have to go a few months back to find one of the more questionable examples of his work.
Like any person, Wojnarowski’s body of work has both its pros and cons and it’s hardly surprising the latter would be overlooked in a moment when many wanted to celebrate his unprecedented career. Still, the overwhelming reaction to his retirement hardly reflected that not only was a pioneer, but he was also a largely polarizing figure in the sports media space.
Woj also able to blaze a unique trail through sports media that left no apologies. His infamous “F— you” e-mail to Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is the stuff of legend. His pithy tweets around ESPN’s policy of not tipping draft picks showed a humorous and mischievous side.
Then there is Woj’s competition and rivalry with Shams Charania, so famous that it has its own Wikipedia page. But even the Woj-Shams rivalry shows the complicated legacy of the legendary insider.
While many in the sports media lifted up Woj as a friend and mentor, the former Yahoo! colleagues have never spoken about their relationship since becoming competitors, with it even being called a “cold war.”
And then there’s the legacy he leaves behind for the industry. Nobody can break news like Adrian Wojnarowski. Nor should they be expected to. As Adam Schefter paid tribute to his ESPN colleague, he made it sound like Woj had no other choice but to step away for his own health and well-being because of the toll that being sports’ most pre-eminent insider took on him. While Woj will go down in the history books for his impact on the business, it’s fair to ask if it’s in a better place now thanks to our insatiable desire for news at all hours of the day and the cost of doing that business.
