Adrian Wojnarowski (; born March 4, 1969), nicknamed Woj, is an American

sports columnist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

and

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He is an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

insider for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, having previously covered the NBA for

Yahoo! Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...

Personal life

Wojnarowski was born in

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, the ...

on March 4, 1969, of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

descent. He graduated from

Bristol Central High School Bristol Central High School is a public high school in Bristol, Connecticut, United States. Its mascot is the Ram, and its colors are maroon and white. The school is known for its performing arts group, Central Stage, as well as for its athletics. ...

in 1987. He then went on to attend St. Bonaventure University, where he graduated in 1991. He currently lives in

Glen Rock, New Jersey Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,133, reflecting an increase of 532 (+4.6%) from the 11,601 counted in the 2010 census,honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from St. Bonaventure University.

Career

Wojnarowski began his career working for the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'' 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 ''The Fresno Bee'' is a daily newspaper serving Fresno, California, and surrounding counties in that U.S. state's central San Joaquin Valley. It is owned by The McClatchy Company and ranks fourth in circulation among the company's newspapers. I ...

'' in 1995. On June 20, 2019, Wojnarowski was awarded the inaugural Tony Kubek Award for Media Excellence by the

National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1973. The mission of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame is to recognize and preserve outstanding achievement by individuals of Polish heritage in the field of ...

in Michigan. In 1997, he started working for ''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Records, an English power pop band * '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee Ge ...

'' 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 The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

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.''

Yahoo! Sports

In 2007, he left ''The Record'' and joined Yahoo! Sports full-time. In March 2009, he and

Dan Wetzel Dan Wetzel is an author, screenwriter, documentary film producer, podcaster, and national columnist for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo.com. Career As a sports writer, he has worked as the national columnist for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo.com, covering events ...

wrote a story tying the

Connecticut Huskies men's basketball The UConn Huskies men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball team of the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut. They currently play in the Big East Conference (Big East) and are coached by Dan Hurley. The Husk ...

program to several recruiting violations. In 2010 the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' reported that Wojnarowski was being sued by the

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

for failing to meet a deadline for a book covering the life of coach

Jim Valvano James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster. Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, most notably at North Carolin ...

. 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. Wojnarowski has been widely considered one of the best NBA "scoopers" in the business by fans, especially during the NBA Draft, when Wojnarowski has called the picks and trades involving said picks ahead of time on his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account. His scoops have been referred to as “Woj Bombs”. However, Wojnarowski has been criticized by media critics for his reporting on NBA player

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...

, being accused of having an apparent bias and relying on anonymous sources. He was listed #1 in Sports Media Watch's ''Worst of Sports Media 2010'' as a result of this criticism.

ESPN

Wojnarowski left Yahoo! Sports for

on July 1, 2017, just before the start of NBA free agency. He made his ESPN debut on the midnight edition of ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

'' earlier that day.

Josh Hawley incident

On July 10, 2020, Republican Senator

Josh Hawley Joshua David Hawley (born December 31, 1979) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from Missouri since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Hawley served as the 42nd attorney general of Mi ...

wrote a letter to NBA commissioner

Adam Silver Adam Silver (born April 25, 1962) is an American lawyer and sports executive who serves as the fifth and current commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He joined the NBA in 1992 and has held various positions within the lea ...

questioning the propriety of the NBA allowing social justice statements on players' jerseys, but not support for law enforcement or anything critical of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

. The NBA has business connections with China. Wojnarowski, copied on the Hawley communication, replied to Hawley via email saying "fuck you". Wojnarowski apologized the same day to Hawley and

; 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. He was due to remain suspended for one to two weeks.https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/Hawley-Letter-NBA-China-Jersey-Messages.pdf

Books authored

References

External links

*
Bio at ESPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojnarowski, Adrian 1969 births Living people American people of Polish descent American podcasters American sportswriters ESPN people St. Bonaventure University alumni Writers from Connecticut Yahoo! employees