It has become something of a tradition in the NBA. You can watch the Draft telecast, but if that is how you are finding out picks, you’re a little bit behind. That’s because for the last several years Adrian Wojnarowski has been tweeting upcoming picks as he is tipped off. Usually he is two or three picks ahead of what is happening on screen.
That’s not happening this year. The NBA has pulled a page from the NFL Draft playbook and told their media partners there is to be no tweeting of draft picks before they are announced. That means Woj and his ESPN co-horts. That means Shams and his Yahoo! staff. That means David Aldridge and the rest of the Turner crew.
Alex Putterman from Awful Announcing points out that Woj working for ESPN is the only thing that makes this kind of rule possible.
It’s likely no coincidence that this reversal from ESPN and the NBA coincides with Wojnarowski’s arrival in Bristol. When Woj worked at Yahoo, which is not an NBA rightsholder, the league would have had little to gain by asking ESPN to hold off on reporting picks, and ESPN would have had little to gain by agreeing, because Woj would have continued to reveal them anyway.
If you’re wondering why Shams Charania and Yahoo’s NBA staff must also abide by the agreement, it is becauseVerizon is now that company’s parent company. Verizon is a digital rights holder for the NBA.
