Last Woj bomb is retirement

The LeBron of NBA news-breaking leaves industry to lead alma mater

- BRUCE ARTHUR

It wasn't like his war with ESPN was a secret, but when Adrian Wojnarowski finally joined the company in 2017, he accepted he didn't have to be the underdog forever.

Adrian Wojnarowski once asked me for vacation advice. Woj was still at Yahoo!, a ferocious columnist and a peerless news breaker, leading a daily war against the ESPN goliath. Yahoo! had a small but heavyweight sports section, and Woj’s news-breaking was forcing ESPN’s TV properties to credit him everywhere. He was relentless.

But one day Woj asked about a Marriott in a nice part of Canada: What was it like, was it worth going? I replied, and added I was pleasantly surprised he was taking a vacation at all.

“I hate giving those guys at ESPN a single day,” he replied. “But my family deserves it.”

I should clarify: Woj didn’t exactly call his ESPN competitors “guys.” It wasn’t like his war with ESPN was a secret but when Woj finally joined ESPN in 2017, it was with the acceptance that he didn’t have be the underdog forever.

Woj dropped his own Woj bomb Wednesday: He is retiring from media at age 55.

He wrote, “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.”