Adrian Wojnarowski

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"Woj" redirects here. For the village, see Woj, Hungary. For the journalist and educator also nicknamed Woj, see Esther Wojcicki.

Adrian Wojnarowski
Born (1969-03-04) March 4, 1969 (age 52)
Bristol, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma materSt. Bonaventure University
OccupationSports reporter, columnist
Years active1986–present

Adrian Wojnarowski (/wɜːrdʒˈnaʊski/;[1] born March 4, 1969), nicknamed Woj, is an American sports columnist, reporter and author. He is an NBA insider for ESPN, having previously covered the NBA for Yahoo! Sports.[2]

Personal life[]

Wojnarowski was born in Bristol, Connecticut on March 4, 1969, of Polish descent. He graduated from Bristol Central High School in 1987. He then went on to attend St. Bonaventure University, where he graduated in 1991.[2] He currently lives in Glen Rock, New Jersey with his wife, Amy, and two children.[3]

Career[]

Wojnarowski began his career working for the Hartford Courant starting as a high school senior and continuing during breaks from college. After graduating from college, he wrote for some smaller papers before becoming a columnist for the Fresno Bee in 1995.[4] On June 20, 2019 Wojnarowski was awarded the inaugural Tony Kubek Award for Media Excellence by the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in Michigan.

In 1997, he started working for The Record in New Jersey. As a result of his work with The Record, he was named "Columnist of the Year" in 1997 and 2002 by the Associated Press Sports Editors. During this time, he also contributed regularly to ESPN.com. In 2006, he published a New York Times best-seller: The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty.[2]

Yahoo! Sports[]

In 2007, he left The Record and joined Yahoo! Sports full-time. Wojnarowski has helped break many major national stories while at Yahoo! Sports. In March 2009, he and Dan Wetzel wrote a story tying the Connecticut Huskies men's basketball program to several recruiting violations.[5] In 2010 the New York Post reported that Wojnarowski was being sued by the Penguin Group for failing to meet a deadline for a book covering the life of coach Jim Valvano. Wojnarowski responded that the problem was "a miscommunication between my agent and me" and said that he would be returning the money to Penguin Books.[6]

Wojnarowski is widely considered one of the best NBA "scoopers" in the business, especially during the NBA Draft, when Wojnarowski has called the picks and trades involving said picks ahead of time on his Twitter account.[7][4] However, Wojnarowski has been criticized by media critics for his reporting on NBA player LeBron James, being accused of having an apparent bias and relying on anonymous sources.[8][9][10][4] He was listed #1 in Sports Media Watch's Worst of Sports Media 2010 as a result of this criticism.[11]

ESPN[]

Wojnarowski left Yahoo! Sports for ESPN on July 1, 2017, just before the start of NBA free agency.[12] He made his ESPN debut on the midnight edition of SportsCenter earlier that day.

Josh Hawley incident[]

On July 10, 2020, Republican Senator Josh Hawley wrote a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, questioning the propriety of the NBA allowing social justice statements on players' jerseys, but not support for law authorities of the United States or anything critical of the Chinese Communist Party.[13] The NBA has business connections with China.[14] Wojnarowski, CC'd on the Hawley communication, replied to Hawley via email saying "fuck you". Wojnarowski apologized the same day to Hawley and ESPN;[15] ESPN called Wojnarowski's response "completely unacceptable behavior" and added the network was "addressing it directly with Adrian and specifics of those conversations will remain internal." Two days later, ESPN suspended Wojnarowski without pay.[14] He was due to remain suspended for one to two weeks.[13]

Books authored[]

  • Wojnarowski, Adrian (January 19, 2006). The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty. Gotham Books. pp. 416 pages. ISBN 1-59240-186-4.

References[]

  1. ^ Nolan, Katie (January 26, 2016). "GARBAGE TIME PODCAST: Episode 16 - Adrian Wojnarowski". Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Yahoo! Staff (n.d.). "NBA – Adrian Wojnarowski". Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  3. ^ "Klapisch: Nobody beats The Woj". North Jersey. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Kevin Draper (December 16, 2014). "Adrian Wojnarowski: How Basketball's Reporting Machine Gets His Scoops | New Republic". Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  5. ^ "Wojnarowski helps Yahoo climb to top Greg Connors, Buffalo News, August 13, 2010". Archived from the original on October 21, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2013.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ Yahoo! writer sued by publisher over failure to meet deadline on Valvano biography
  7. ^ Caspian King, Jay (June 27, 2014). "Twitter's NBA Draft Oracle". New Yorker. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  8. ^ Strauss, Ethan Sherwood (2010). Outside Look at Wojnarowski's Lebron Article, WarriorsWorld, July 19, 2010.
  9. ^ Shoals, Bethlehem (2010). With Lebron James, How Anonymous is Too Anonymous? Archived January 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, AOL News, July 19, 2010.
  10. ^ Brown, Larry (2011). Why Anything Adrian Wojnarowski Writes About Lebron James Needs to be Ignored, Larry Brown Sports, June 7, 2011.
  11. ^ Sports Media Watch (2010). Worst of Sports Media 2010, Sports Media Watch, December 15, 2010.
  12. ^ Sports Illustrated (2017). Adrian Wojnarowski to start at ESPN on July 1, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2017.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Strauss, Ben (July 12, 2020). "ESPN suspends Adrian Wojnarowski, its star NBA reporter, after profane email to senator". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Panetta, Grace (July 10, 2020). "ESPN's star NBA reporter apologizes for emailing 'F--- you' to Sen. Josh Hawley". Business Insider. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  15. ^ "ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski apologizes to Sen. Josh Hawley for profane email response". USAToday.com.

External links[]

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