Adrian Wojnarowski shocked the sports world when he announced his departure from ESPN in September. His bosses didn’t know it was coming. His decision to go from omniscient NBA insider to general manager of his alma mater St. Bonaventure’s men’s basketball team puzzled many.
Now, Wojnarowski has peeled back the curtain into his decision, telling Sports Illustrated that a diagnosis of prostate cancer in March put things into perspective.
Wojnarowski said his prognosis is positive, and explained his type of cancer “generally stays confined to your prostate and is typically slow growing.” Surgery is an option if he wants it, but for now, he’s been told to improve his sleep, eating, and exercise regimens, and show up to quarterly checkups.
The diagnosis wasn’t the sole reason he left ESPN, but Wojnarowski said it impacted the decision. “I didn’t want to spend one more day of my life waiting on someone’s MRI or hitting an agent at 1 a.m. about an ankle sprain,” he said.
Wojnarowski also said a trip to Arkansas in May to attend the funeral of longtime ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen, who died from throat cancer, also made him “remember that the job isn’t everything.”
“In the end it’s just going to be your family and close friends. And it’s also, like, nobody gives a shit. Nobody remembers [breaking stories] in the end. It’s just vapor,” he said.
Wojnarowski said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro knew about the cancer diagnosis when his star reporter quit mid-contract. He said his family was also ready for him to leave, and he was burnt out himself.
The former breaking news guru dropped plenty of other “Woj bombs” in the SI piece. One that made the rounds on social media included the revelation that Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign reached out to him to break the news of her selecting Tim Walz as her running mate. Wojnarowski’s wife, Amy, refers to his cellphone as a fifth family member, and his salary at St. Bonaventure is $75,000—a big comedown from his $7.3 million annual deal with ESPN.
Woj said he has no interest in returning to media or going to the NBA. And despite being courted by friends at other schools to be general manager, he says he wouldn’t consider working anywhere but St. Bonaventure.
“What I was doing, it just wasn’t fulfilling anymore,” Wojnarowski said. “I was just done. This is what gets me excited. To learn something new, to be part of something like this. It’s a whole new challenge.”
Wojnarowski said Thursday he was “going to be fine” after the publication of the SI story, and that he told the writer about his diagnosis to “encourage screening and testing.”
