Longtime NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski departed his role at ESPN this past September, retiring from the journalism business to serve as the general manager of the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure University, his alma mater. Although he is no longer breaking stories about the latest transactions and news around the league, Wojnarowski is enjoying his new position and focusing on his responsibilities in the job. In the latter stages of his journalism career though, he was often compared to Shams Charania, an insider with whom he previously collaborated at Yahoo Sports, in terms of how quickly they could break certain stories.
Alex Sherman, media and sports reporter for CNBC, recently interviewed Wojnarowski for CNBC Sport and looked back at his previous occupation. Sherman acknowledged the perceived rivalry with Charania and asked whether or not it was something that invigorated or annoyed him. In response, Wojnarowski divulged that neither was the case and instead underscored the concentration he kept surrounding his job at ESPN and being able to successfully meet the moment amid a dynamic media ecosystem.
“What was created was this 24/7 news cycle, and so to me, I always felt there were two things you could really focus on and you better not have a third thing, and that was this job and your family” Wojnarowski said, “and if you were caught up in a third thing in any way, I don’t think you were going to be as good as you needed to be in your job and in your family life.”
Wojnarowski is cognizant of how social media can create illusions of many things and realizes that there were many skilled professionals with whom he came up in the business. While the craft has elements of intense competition, he is applying the same verve and spirit to his new job and hopes that what has allowed him to do well is translating to the role. There are some commonalities in the job through speaking to people within NBA teams and connected to the league, but the conversations are different in that he is focused on recruiting and fundraising for NIL on a daily basis.
Wojnarowski is invested in his current role and did not see the tweet from Charania that broke the news of All-Star guard Luka Dončić being dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a package of players that included All-Star center Anthony Davis going to the Dallas Mavericks. Looking back at his career in the journalism business, he knows that he has broken many stories and has been in the middle of things. Furthermore, he was aware that there would be more signings and trades after he left but articulated that breaking the news is not what necessarily drove him.
“I wanted to follow what my passion was and where I wanted to be, and I’ve not looked back,” Wojnarowski said. “I look back very fondly at the time I had at ESPN and Yahoo and newspapers prior to that, but I made a decision that I was ready to move on from it. There hasn’t been one moment since I left ESPN in September where I thought I wanted to be doing anything but what I’m doing now at St. Bonaventure.”
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