If you only know Adrian Wojnarowski as an NBA insider, Twitter reporter, pollster and ESPN personality, then his latest Woj Bomb – as his true but rare reports they are well known – they may not make sense.
On Wednesday morning, Wojnarowski, 55, tweeted that he was leaving sports journalism, leaving a lucrative and powerful position at ESPN as the NBA’s most powerful and popular reporter. .
The exile: he leaves to become the general manager of his beloved alma mater, the University of St. Bonaventure. There he will lead the recruiting and NIL efforts to help his good friend coach Mark Schmidt keep Bonnie’s proud program relevant and ultimately return to the NCAA Tournament.
“I am excited and humbled to return to St. Bonaventure with the opportunity to serve the university,” Wojnarowski said in a statement.
Also, a guy at the peak of his reporting and breaking powers, with the dream job and salary of any sports reporter in the country, is stepping down voluntarily, for another three years on a deal home, and prefers to work in the middle. college hoops program in a small town in the snow belt of Western New York.
With his reputation and experience, if Wojnarowski wanted to leave journalism for a competitive business, he could easily have joined a sports center or NBA front office. At least one major college program, upon hearing the rumors of Woj’s transfer, offered him the same spot and the lure of trying to win a national title.
He said no.
Instead he took the freedom offered to make enough money that he no longer needed money to create his dream job. It doesn’t get much better than that.
He said: “I am very happy.
All of this speaks to two characteristics that I have come to know about Wojnarowski in three decades of friendship and working against each other – he spent more than a decade here at Yahoo Sports.
For one, Woj is as gifted as a writer and reporter as he is in sports journalism, but the secret to his success was a competitive edge that bordered on madness.
Two, there is nothing outside of his family that he loves more than St. Bonaventure, the school where the kid from Bristol, Connecticut, found his feet, his confidence and his wife, Amy.
In the field of sports journalism, Woj’s drive wasn’t to break a story or write a great piece, it was to beat the other guy. Starting as a schoolboy at the Hartford Courant, through his time as a college beat reporter in Waterbury, Connecticut, and a newspaper reporter in Fresno, California, and North Jersey, he was inspired to rise to the top of the industry.
Eventually at Yahoo, he became a tough NBA writer and later a peerless reporter. At ESPN, he gained fame and fortune doing the job.
But the money and attention were never there. He and his family still live in the same house they lived in when he was a writer for the city newspaper. Simple foods were always popular. He never changed under those bright television lights because it was just a means to an end (many broken stories) rather than a destination.
Winning was the most important thing. It was always a zero-sum game for him. Every night was about knowing whatever competition was in front of him; hit it as much as possible.
So while he will stop chasing rumors and tips, he will now focus on getting better players and ultimately beating the Bonnies. He will use his connections and talents to try to secure championships for his favorite team.
This wasn’t about landing a high-profile NBA job, just like being a reporter wasn’t about going to ESPN (he turned them down repeatedly over the years before accepting).
This is about competition.
Better employer, not Woj Bomb.
It sounds good. Good luck to the rest of the Atlantic 10, because even though the Bonnies may not get enough to win the Final Four, this guy doesn’t lose when he sets his mind to something.
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