Wojnarowski began his career working for the
Hartford Courant starting as a high school senior and continuing during college holidays. During his time in college, he interned at the
Olean Times Herald in 1989, where the sports department put him to use writing highly critical pieces of St. Bonaventure's basketball team. After graduating from college, he wrote for some smaller papers before becoming a columnist for the
Fresno Bee in 1995. In 1997, he began to work for
The Record in New Jersey. As a result of his work with
The Record, he was named "Columnist of the Year" in 1997 and in 2002 by the
Associated Press Sports Editors. During that time, he also contributed regularly to ESPN.com. 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.
On June 20, 2019, Wojnarowski was awarded the inaugural Tony Kubek Award for Media Excellence by the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in Michigan. 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. Wojnarowski responded that the problem was "a miscommunication between my agent and me" and said that he would be returning the money to Penguin Books. Over time, Wojnarowski shifted his emphasis from opinions columns He was so well-connected that on at least one occasion, a team executive said that his staff learned of a new signing from Wojnarowski before he had even announced it to the team. Wojnarowski flexed his reporting muscle by repeatedly reporting
NBA draft picks before the league announced them on its annual live telecast, which he continued to do (in a more comedic form) after joining NBA broadcasting partner ESPN. However, Wojnarowski was accused of
access journalism, providing favorable coverage to sources like
Detroit Pistons general manager
Joe Dumars in exchange for scoops. his reporting on James received some criticism for being biased and poorly sourced. He was listed No. 1 in Sports Media Watch's
Worst of Sports Media 2010 as a result of this criticism. Despite being from Bristol, Connecticut, where
ESPN is headquartered, and working for ESPN during his early career, Wojnarowski developed a strong rivalry with ESPN and many of its established NBA reporters, including
Marc Stein and
John Hollinger. Wojnarowski, who ran a lean operation at Yahoo!, reportedly resented ESPN's large staff and ample resources.
Ric Bucher said that Wojnarowski had "a jihad against ESPN." One of the laid-off reporters, Ethan Strauss, started a
Substack account that periodically published pieces highly critical of Wojnarowski.
ESPN Wojnarowski left Yahoo! Sports for
ESPN on July 1, 2017, just before the start of NBA free agency that year, making his ESPN debut on the midnight edition of
SportsCenter. ESPN president
John Skipper boasted that he hired Wojnarowski because "We wanted to be first [in breaking news], and we wanted to win." During his years at ESPN, Wojnarowski mentored upcoming reporter
Malika Andrews. He was the first to announce that the NBA had suspended the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was such a celebrity that during the
2024 presidential election campaign,
Kamala Harris' staff reportedly asked him to break the news of
Tim Walz's selection as Harris' running mate, although another outlet broke the news first. Wojnarowski announced his retirement from the news industry in September 2024
Shams Charania succeeded him at ESPN. Following his retirement, the
Basketball Hall of Fame awarded Wojnarowski its
Curt Gowdy Media Award.
Rivalry with Shams Charania During his time at Yahoo! Sports, Wojnarowski mentored a young
Shams Charania, who later became Wojnarowski's chief rival for scoops after Wojnarowski left Yahoo! for ESPN. 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." (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.) Beyond merely reporting news, Wojnarowski and Charania's knowledge allowed them to help shape events in the NBA. According to Wiedeman, "Wojnarowski has a grip on many of the NBA's front offices, while Charania has more of a foothold among agents and even many players."
Josh Hawley incident 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. The NBA has business connections with China. Wojnarowski, copied on the Hawley communication, replied to Hawley via email saying "fuck you". Wojnarowski apologized the same day to Hawley and
ESPN; ESPN called Wojnarowski's response "completely unacceptable behavior" and suspended Wojnarowski without pay Wojnarowski's outburst impressed even his critics, such as LeBron James, who tweeted "#FreeWOJ!!" following the suspension. == Basketball executive career ==