Woj talks about his move to ESPN “I’m not going to change the way I cover the league,” Wojnarowski said. “But at the same time, being in the studio in Bristol and studio shows in Los Angeles … I’m going to be very visible on all those shows.” Front-office insider Bobby Marks, a former assistant general manager for the Brooklyn Nets whom Wojnarowski calls the “Kristaps Porzingis of my team” because of his versatility and surprising star turn, will join Wojnarowski at ESPN on July 1. Wojnarowski declined to comment on those who remain under contract with Yahoo Sports. What does this move mean for you? Wojnarowski: Well, I’m excited. I’m excited to be a part of the NBA group that they already have and just the commitment that exists to compete at the highest level, to cover the league in a competitive fashion. Their platforms — digital, television, video, social — here, and then globally, I’ve found that this is a sport where there’s a tremendous appetite not just here but all over the world for the NBA. I think ESPN gives you the best platform to reach as many possible people as possible with the best quality of content. There will be an opportunity to reach people and do it in a real committed fashion. You built up something at Yahoo in The Vertical, kind of your own creation. Now you’re going to a larger team. I can’t imagine anyone at ESPN has as much editorial freedom as you did at The Vertical. I’m curious how you made the decision that it was in your best interest to maybe give up some freedom to gain reach and other things? Wojnarowski: Well, I’ve always stayed within the structure of where I’ve been. I answered to people at Yahoo. I had tremendous editors, tremendous leaders. I always worked within the structure that we had in place, and I think I’m going to fit well in the structure at ESPN. Top to bottom, there’s a tremendous commitment to the NBA at ESPN. There’s tremendous talent there already covering the league in lots of different ways. I think I fit in well there. I think I fit in well at Yahoo and The Vertical. The structure that exists (at ESPN) here really appealed to me throughout. You spent 10 years at Yahoo Sports, and you and Dan Wetzel kind of became the faces of it as it became a big force in sports media out of nowhere. What are you going to miss about that, and what’s your main takeaway from your time at Yahoo? Wojnarowski: None of this would have happened to me without Dan Wetzel. He’s the one who told (former Yahoo Sports leader, now head of USA TODAY Sports Media Group) Dave Morgan 11 years ago, “Hey, we should consider this.” I was a general columnist. I was never a full-time NBA writer. But they were doing things a little differently at Yahoo. They changed my life. It’s pretty rare in this business where you can build something from the ground up, and we did that at Yahoo. A lot of people helped put Yahoo on the map as a sports reporting and sports news entity, and I’m proud of it. I’m proud of the time I spent there. It’s a special group. It’ll always be a real special group to me. We know what you bring in terms of columns and breaking news, but I guess the TV element is sort of more up in the air in terms of your fit. Do you have specific ideas of what your TV role is going to be and how often you’ll be on programs like The Jump and NBA Countdown? Wojnarowski: My reporting, going on to break news, talk about news, and also interviews. I’ll sit down with people, players, coaches, people from around the league. There will be time to sit down and maybe do longer form television pieces over time. Then the print component will be similar to what I’ve done. I think I’ll be very visible to people on the TV side on all of ESPN’s NBA properties, and SportsCenter and news shows. FTW: That’s a little bit different from what we expect of you. When you did videos for The Vertical, it was a voiceover, you were not on camera. When you did the live draft and free agency shows, you were not in studio. This is the chance for a lot of people to see you when they didn’t see you as often. Wojnarowski: I have done a lot of — maybe people didn’t see it all — but I did do a couple years on Fox and was in the studio a lot, and even before that I was in the NBC Sports studio. So I’ve had a lot of reps. But there’s no question that for the broader audience, I’ve probably been less visible. But I do understand that’s going to change now. Your arrival comes a few months after some major layoffs at ESPN, notably on the NBA side, but also across the board. I know Andy Katz and you go way back. What do those layoffs mean to you, and how to you perceive joining ESPN so soon after? Wojnarowski: Well, listen, I have this tremendous respect for this business, how hard it is, how many talented people in sports, in news, who I came up with in the business. It’s really hard. It’s never been harder. And I have great respect for everybody who’s finding their way and making a living in this business. It’s not easy, and it’s probably not always fair. But at the same time, our industry is changing, and it’s probably going to continue to change. Every company is going through an evolution. So I think you just work as hard as you can to do the best work and hope that there’s going to be opportunities for you. For me, that’s the best way I try to make sense of it all. When you talk about the changing industry, how do you view the future of the thing you’re most known for, which is breaking news? Wojnarowski: Well, you’re right in that I’ve tried to be versatile in a lot of ways, but I do understand that’s an element that’s really important for me. I think it’s going to be very important for ESPN. It was important at The Vertical and Yahoo. I think it’s always going to be important. Being able to not just break news first, but to be accurate, to give people context and perspective on breaking news, I do think it has value and it’s going to continue to have great value. That means you have to work on that 365 days a year. There are no days off on it, and the market, there’s so many talented people in this at ESPN and at other places who are working really hard at it, too. For me, it’s going to continue to be my top priority. It will be my No. 1 priority at ESPN, and I’ll have other priorities, too, that will fit around it. But it’s something that I’ve worked really hard at, and I’m going to continue to work really hard at because there’s no other way to be competitive in that genre than to just really, really work at it. That to me, with all this going on, there’s just a lot of work to be done. And starting somewhere new and making what’s a significant change for me in terms of going there, the one constant is going to be there’s just a lot of work to be done through July and free agency, and then through the fall and the start of another season, and you’ve got to work through it every day. That’s the mindset I’m going to bring, and I know that’s the mindset of the people who are already at ESPN.
Is there ever going to be a point — obviously, one day in the future, you’ll retire, but before then — where you get tired of breaking news? Where you’re sick of the grind of being up at 2 a.m. because a story’s breaking? Wojnarowski: I love it. I love the speed of it. I love the chase. I love the people I work with and interact with. I’m lucky to be able to do what I do. My dad worked at (ball-bearings company) New Departure-Hyatt. Right when New Departure was going out of business in the 1980s, when ESPN was starting to rise, before ESPN, the biggest employer in Bristol was New Departure-Hyatt. It was a factory up on Chippens Hill. He worked hard. He had a real job. So for me to be a couple miles away from that, getting to do this, I don’t think of it as “burned out.” I’m exhilarated. I’m excited to start there. I don’t see some finish line where I’m trying to stumble to some tape at the end. I feel like I’m sprinting into the job. I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else. Maybe there will be a time in the distant future, but right now and for the foreseeable future, I can’t wait to get going. And I just consider myself lucky. There’s so many talented people in this industry that I’m lucky I’ve gotten great breaks. I’ve been around people who have given me great opportunities, going all the way back to when I was in high school working at the Hartford Courant. … This is what I always dreamed of. I didn’t imagine this incarnation, it didn’t really exist then. But I’m excited to not just get to work but to keep going. I can’t imagine what else I would do. I don’t golf. I don’t have hobbies. I try to put in the work. Is there a change at all for you in working for a league partner, in showing the independent voice you showed at Yahoo? Wojnarowski: I’m going to be a journalist. I’m going to do this job the way I see fit, and I’m going to write and report in the manner in which I’ve done. Nobody has said to me, I have not had one conversation with anybody in this whole process where they’ve asked me to do anything but that. So I’m just going to go into this with that mindset that I’m going to do this job the way I have done it and that ESPN is excited about that. In the past, in a couple of your Yahoo columns, you would maybe throw a little turn-of-phrase at ESPN, maybe calling it a “sports cable channel” instead of using the name ESPN. How do you look back on those one-liners that you threw into a handful of columns? Wojnarowski: I mean, I look at it this way: I’m really competitive, and this is a competitive marketplace. And when I’m against you, I’m going against you. When I’m with you, I’m with you. Anybody who’s worked with me knows I’ve been a really good teammate through my years going back to the Fresno Bee with Andy Katz and Bergen Record for nine years, Yahoo for a decade. And I think everyone at ESPN is going to find that I’m a really good teammate and somebody who’s going to be generous with whatever I can be helpful with and competitive with the places that we’re going to compete with. But I probably — I’m not perfect, and there’s probably a few times along the line that I probably should have spared everyone or kept to myself. But at the same time, I’m excited to work with the group that’s at ESPN and have Bobby coming in alongside. And whatever else portends in the future, staff-wise, I think there’s a lot of open field to keep getting better, and I’m excited for it. You mention your competitiveness, and we ask players this all the time: Do you think of yourself as the best NBA reporter? Wojnarowski: I don’t. I just — this is true — every day I wake up thinking I’m going to get my ass kicked. And some days I do. And some days, I have more success. There’s so much talent and so much diverse kinds of talent, people doing different things, I really just try to stay — it sounds like a player cliché, but really I am very process-oriented and have a way of mapping out my years and mapping out my weeks and what my goals are and places that need my attention. I’ll continue to do that. I spend all year preparing for the draft, and then free agency, and then the trade deadline, and then the rookie extension deadline in October. Listen, they put a lot of confidence in me at ESPN with what we’re doing, and I’m humbled by it. but I’ve been humbled by the support I had at Yahoo. A lot of people believed in me and trusted in me, and I take it seriously. … You don’t do any of this alone. I had great editors and teammates at Yahoo. And I’m not going to do it alone at ESPN, either. Was this inevitable? Was Adrian Wojnarowski going back to ESPN something that had to happen, given that ESPN is the largest sports media organization, or was this something that are surprised by? Wojnarowski: Somewhere in-between. I never felt it was inevitable. The time at Yahoo was, companies change and evolve, and you look at the landscape, and you’re looking for tremendous commitment. The one thing I felt comfortable with at ESPN were the people in place. Like Mary Byrne’s the news editor at ESPN. She and I worked together in Waterbury 23 years, I don’t know how many years, ago, my first job. Then there’s other people I’ve known through the years. And as I got to know the people in there, I became comfortable with their sensibilities and what was important to them and where we aligned on certain things. So I always look at it beyond the monolith of the place and into who the people are and how I fit into it. And I don’t know that I fit into it in the past. Maybe I did and didn’t know it, but I think the timing is right and the fit is there, and I felt comfortable with that. Over time, it felt like it fit together. I was very happy at Yahoo, and I loved what we were doing. But there was always a natural — because I grew up (in Bristol) — that there was always a natural (fit). But my father was as surprised as anyone, and he’s lived in Bristol his whole life.
ESPN should have traded for Woj 3 days earlier, rather than July 1st. They missed out on all those clicks from the Rockets trade.
Free agent Adrian Wojnarowski (who intends to sign with ESPN) will not sign errr tweet until midnight tonight. If you are a hardcore NBA junkie—and how great has the off-season been so far?—you’ve likely noticed that the Twitter feed of Adrian Wojnarowski has gone dormant since Thursday at 3:29 p.m. ET. This is intentional. SI.com has learned that Wojnarowski will not report any new NBA information until the start of his ESPN contract, which comes at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. No trades, no signings, no speculation until then. Wojnarowski will officially join ESPN at midnight ET on Friday, which coincides the date NBA free agents can begin reaching verbal agreements with teams. He will appear in studio with Scott Van Pelt on the late edition of SportsCenter on ESPN, and will likely stay for much of the hour. Look for Wojnarowski to also appear at some point on the basketball studio show, The Jump, which will air an NBA Free Agency special from midnight to 2:00 a.m. ET on ESPN2.
That is must see television. Woj will just be checking his phone and giving live updates. Good sign from ESPN.
Does anyone actually announce agreements from midnight to 2am? What was Woj's twitter feed like in that time slot last year or year before?
Marc Stein close to finalizing deal with the New York Times Spoiler: OT Michelle Beadle, Jalen Rose reportedly joining Mike Greenberg on new ESPN morning show However, Guthrie did include an ominous “for now” when referring to Beadle and Rose staying on NBA Countdown. That would appear to imply that changes are inevitable, despite Beadle being promoted to full-time host of the show earlier this year. Having Beadle and Rose do NBA Countdown in the evening, then turning around for the very early wake-up that morning TV requires doesn’t seem sustainable long-term. (The same applies to Rose’s ESPN Radio responsibilities.) Yet NBA Countdown airs Wednesdays and Fridays, so that brutal turnaround would only take place once a week — at least during the regular season. Presumably, Beadle would no longer be a co-host of SportsNation. Hosting a daily morning show and afternoon program would be asking a whole lot of Beadle, unless she doesn’t need any sleep. There would appear to be quite a few puzzle pieces to move around in light of this reported move. Who will replace Beadle on SportsNation and, presumably, NBA Countdown? Could Rachel Nichols jump from The Jump to ESPN’s flagship NBA studio show? Will Jalen & Jacoby continue? With more to surely come, perhaps that’s why ESPN hasn’t yet officially announced the move.
