Newspapers Wilbon began working for
The Washington Post in 1980 after summer internships at the newspaper in 1979 and 1980. He covered college sports,
Major League Baseball, the
National Football League and the
National Basketball Association before being promoted to full-time columnist in 1990. In his career, Wilbon covered ten Summer and Winter
Olympic Games for
The Washington Post, every
Super Bowl since 1987, nearly every
Final Four since 1982 and each year's
NBA Finals since . Notably, he was also the only reporter based outside of
Hawaii to cover the
historic basketball upset of top-ranked
Virginia by then-
NAIA member
Chaminade in 1982 (he was in
Honolulu to cover
a college football bowl game). During his time at the
Post, Wilbon earned the reputation as one of "the best deadline writer[s] in American newspapers." In 2001, Wilbon was named the top sports columnist by the
Society of Professional Journalists. In recent years, Wilbon has become more known as an ESPN personality than as a reporter. On December 7, 2010, he wrote his last column for
The Washington Post and officially dedicated full-time to work for ESPN and ABC. Wilbon was also a member of
ABC's
NBA Countdown (which he hosted with
Jalen Rose,
Bill Simmons and
Magic Johnson), which was the pre-game show for the network's NBA telecasts. Prior to joining ESPN, Wilbon worked on the BET Budweiser Sports Report show. One memorable segment had Wilbon taking issue with Bison Dele (née Brian Williams) transferring from Maryland to Arizona. In addition to his work at
The Washington Post,
PTI and ESPN, Wilbon appeared weekly on
WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., with WRC Sports Director
George Michael, and
Pro Football Hall of Famers
John Riggins and
Sonny Jurgensen on
Redskins Report during the football season. He also appeared with Michael,
USA Today basketball writer
David Dupree and
Tony Kornheiser on
Full Court Press during the basketball season. Both of these shows were canceled in December 2008 due to budget cuts. Wilbon also forged a close friendship with former Marshall and former NFL quarterback
Byron Leftwich while the young passer was a standout player for HD Woodson in Washington, D.C. In late 2006, Wilbon agreed to a multi-year contract extension with ESPN. After accepting the contract, Wilbon offered to resign from the
Post, but the newspaper's chairman
Don Graham and executive editor
Len Downie both asked him to stay on. The network gained priority therein with regards to conflicts with his newspaper assignments. The first major conflict occurred on February 4, 2007, when Wilbon covered a
Detroit Pistons–
Cleveland Cavaliers game instead of
Super Bowl XLI. ==Personal life==