Adrian Wojnarowski leaves ESPN for St. Bonaventure

During his more than decade-long reign as the preeminent NBA news-breaker, Adrian Wojnarowski’s frequent scoops became known as “Woj bombs” to his enormous following.

On Thursday, the most meta of Woj bombs dropped, a stunning piece of news regarding his own career.

Wojnarowski, 55, announced that he was retiring from ESPN, where he has worked since 2018, and from sportswriting to become general manager of the men’s basketball program at Saint Bonaventure, his alma mater.

Fittingly, the story announcing his decision was bylined on ESPN.com by the network’s other high-profile “insiders”: Pete Thamel (college football), Adam Schefter (NFL), and Jeff Passan (baseball).

On Twitter/X, where Wojnarowski has 6.5 million followers, he posted the following message:

“I grew up the son of a factory worker two miles from ESPN’s campus and only ever dreamed of making a living as a sportswriter. Thirty-seven years ago, the Hartford Courant gave me my first byline and I never stopped chasing the thrill of it all.

“This craft transformed my life, but I’ve decided to retire from ESPN and the news industry. I understand the commitment required in my role and it’s an investment I’m no longer driven to make. Time isn’t in endless supply and I want to spend mine in ways that are more personally meaningful.

“I leave with overwhelming gratitude for countless mentors and colleagues, subjects and stories, readers and viewers. No one has benefited more from the belief, trust, and generosity of others.

“After all of these years reporting on everyone’s teams, I’m headed back to my own.”

Wojnarowski, a 1991 Saint Bonaventure graduate, will move into a position in Division 1 athletic programs that has become essential because of the advent of the transfer portal and the financial decisions that come with Name-Image-Likeness allocation.

“It is a thrill of a lifetime to be able to return to a university and community that I love in a role of service to our student-athletes, coaches and institution,” Wojnarowski told ESPN. “I am hopeful that I can bring value in a lot of areas to our basketball program and open doors for our young men’s futures in ways both professionally and personally.”

Wojnarowski has been with ESPN since 2017. He also worked at The Fresno Bee, The Record of Bergen (N.J.) County and Yahoo! Sports.

An accomplished columnist and author — he wrote the superb “The Miracle of St. Anthony,” about coach Bob Hurley and his storied New Jersey high school basketball program — Wojnarowski came to even greater prominence as a prolific news-breaker in concert with the rise of social media.

Before joining ESPN, he was in a sense that network’s chief agitator, breaking NBA news over and over again at Yahoo! despite ESPN’s superior resources.

His finest moment, however, came shortly after he rejoined ESPN, during the 2018 NBA Draft. The network and the league had grown weary of reporters revealing each pick on social media before it was announced on the television broadcast. It wasn’t quite a mandate, but even ESPN’s own reporters were told not to spoil the picks.

Wojnarowski came up with an amusing loophole, using vague adjectives to “reveal” the picks. (Example: “The Spurs are fixated on Lonnie Walker with the 18th pick, source tells ESPN.”) It may not have thrilled his bosses, but it was so well-played and received such a positive response from NBA fans that there wasn’t much they could do.

In recent years, Shams Charania, a former understudy’s of Wojnarowski at Yahoo!, turned into a valid competitor for scoops, and it was a rivalry NBA fans watched with amusement. But Wojnarowski’s experience and array of contacts helped him retain his status as the most trusted voice on NBA news.

One of the very rare times when he was incorrect occurred in July 2016, when Al Horford signed as a free agent with the Celtics. Wojnarowski had reported that Horford was returning to the Atlanta Hawks before quickly updating his information.

Wojnarowski has spoken in the past about how doing the insider job essentially requires a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 52-weeks-a-year commitment. In a 2015 interview with GQ, he talked about how the job can bleed into his personal life.

“I remember once, my son was young and we were in our front yard playing catch,” he told GQ. “And my phone was on the front stoop. I’d throw the ball and he’d throw it back. And then I’m like peeking over at the phone if there’s a text message or a missed call or whatever, right? So I throw a ball and I go over and look and he’s waiting or whatever. And I’m saying to myself, if I’m the guy across the street and I’m watching me, like, what kind of an [expletive] is that father over there?

“I always think of it this way: five days from now nobody is going to remember if I broke that story or not, but five days from now, five years, ten years, fifteen years, your kids are going to remember that you weren’t there, or that you were there but weren’t there. Nobody’s going to remember that you broke a trade. It’s a vapor.”