ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski retires

RIP to the Woj Bomb.

The social media age of the NBA has made it so that reporters, analysts, and other media members play a bigger role in the landscape of the league than ever before. And no media member has emerged as a celebrity in that space the way that ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has.

Wojnarowski — endearingly known simply as “Woj” — has been synonymous with NBA coverage ever since Twitter became the medium of choice for sports news. His “Woj Bombs” — breaking news dropped from seemingly nowhere, at any hour of the day — became as well known as many of the league’s prominent players. To be a devoted NBA fan in this era is to have Twitter notifications on for Woj at all times of the year, even if you don’t actively use the app.

No one has matched his level of success or fame in the NBA newsbreaking landscape. The closest is his one-time pupil, The Athletic’s Shams Charania. These days, Wojnarowski and Charania break a similar amount of news, though Charania often lacks the objectivity, journalistic integrity, and affable fatherly charm of Wojnarowski (though in full transparency, those first two categories have been in question for Woj, as well).

Woj has dropped plenty of bombs about the Golden State Warriors over the years, most recently breaking news of Steph Curry’s one-year, $62.6 million extension.

But the last Woj Bomb has been dropped. On Wednesday it was announced that Wojnarowski, 55, was retiring from his highly-successful role at ESPN. In news first broken by his colleague, Jeff Passan, and shortly after confirmed by the man himself, Wojnarowski has decided to step away from journalism, and accept a role as the general manager of the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure.

General manager is a fairly new role that some college teams have adopted since the name, image, and likeness rule was implemented in collegiate sports, allowing college athletes to be compensated. According to ESPN’s article on Wojnarowski’s move, “The role includes name, image and likeness allocation, recruiting and supporting successful Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt.”

(Side bar: if Mike Dunleavy Jr. or Joe Lacob is ready this and would like to offer me a role supporting successful Warriors coach Steve Kerr, you know where to find me.)

In a statement, Wojnarowski explained the decision by saying that, “I understand the commitment required in my role and it’s an investment that 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.”

Given that Wojnarowski is likely to see his salary decrease by millions, it’s certainly admirable that’s he’s moving to a career where he feels he can have a bigger impact, and do more gratifying work. And it sounds like a pretty cool job.

Godspeed, Woj.