Adrian Wojnarowski (/wɜːrdʒˈnaʊski/;[1] born March 4, 1969), nicknamed Woj, is an American basketball executive and former sports columnist and reporter.
[7] Wojnarowski began his career working for the Hartford Courant starting as a high school senior and continuing during college holidays.
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.
In March 2009, he and Dan Wetzel wrote a story tying the Connecticut Huskies men's basketball program to several recruiting violations.
[10] 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.
[9] His speed made him an Internet celebrity, and his scoops were referred to as "Woj Bombs"; his Twitter followers would sometimes respond to his breaking news tweets with "nuclear explosion" gifs for comedic effect.
[16][17] However, Wojnarowski was accused of access journalism, providing favorable coverage to sources like Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars in exchange for scoops.
Wojnarowski, who ran a lean operation at Yahoo!, reportedly resented ESPN's large staff and ample resources.
[23] One of the laid-off reporters, Ethan Strauss, started a Substack account that periodically published pieces highly critical of Wojnarowski.
[30] Wojnarowski announced his retirement from the news industry in September 2024[31] after being diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer that March, although he stressed that as of December 2024, his long-term prognosis remained good.
[33] Reeves Wiedeman wrote that "Charania and Wojnarowski have become celebrities in their own right [] by serving as vessels for the daily stream of news that holds NBA fans' attention even (and perhaps especially) when there aren't any games being played.
"[34] (This was not an exaggeration: in 2021, Wojnarowski beat Charania to a key scoop, James Harden's trade to the Brooklyn Nets, by eight seconds.
[26][18] In addition, the Washington Post reported that NBA front offices revised their information-sharing practices to limit leaks to Wojnarowski and Charania.
[40] In 2023, Awful Announcing reported that Wojnarowski had patched up the feud, at least with respect to James' agent and close friend Rich Paul.
[44] 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 enforcement or anything critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
[50] On September 19, 2024, Wojnarowski announced that he would become the general manager of the men's basketball team at St. Bonaventure University, his alma mater.