Adrian Wojnarowski is officially headed to ESPN. After months of rumors and many layoffs to make it happen, Woj is taking his #wojbombs to Bristol. The two sides formally announced the deal Wednesday morning, weeks after everyone already knew exactly what would happen to Woj shortly after the NBA Draft.
Reports about the rumored move began in February, but the official move took us through the rest of the NBA season and the draft. Wojnarowski made his mark with Yahoo, and he built The Vertical — the site’s basketball enterprise — from the ground up. But his new deal with ESPN will include something he only dabbled in with Yahoo: on camera appearances.
“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.”
Woj was interviewed by For the Win about his new role and said not much will change with his new role, outside of the added camera work. But didn’t say whether he will be a regular on shows like NBA Countdown outside of reporting spots and interviews with players.
The Vertical put on a very successful draft show, which was watched by so many people ESPN essentially changed its policy to let reporters tip draft picks because so many people were going to Woj first.
One of the most interesting notes of Woj’s new deal with ESPN is that he’s starting a school.
Part of @WojVerticalNBA joining ESPN, he's creating "The Writing Initiative" at Bristol Central HS, his alma mater. https://t.co/CiW9aFtyiG pic.twitter.com/rbuklalxMv
— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) June 28, 2017
Giving back to the high school he attended is a really cool idea. While some are not happy with the turmoil his move may have created at ESPN, at least a few good things are sure to come of it for some kids. Woj does a good job of sidestepping this question in the interview, but it’s clear he’s very excited about joining ESPN after more than a decade at Yahoo.
