Adrian Wojnarowski's Sudden ESPN Retirement Could Cost Him $100 Million Over Next Decade
Adrian Wojnarowski retired from his role at ESPN and in the media on Wednesday. Wojnarowski will become the general manager of the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure University.
"After all these years of reporting on everyone’s teams, I’m heading back to my own," Wojnarowski posted Wednesday on X.
The move is costly. Literally.
Sources tell OutKick that Wojnarowski re-signed with ESPN in 2022 for around $7-8 million per year. His current deal had nearly three years remaining. Translation: Wojnarowski is walking away from at least $20 million of guaranteed money.
We emphasize "at least."
Wojnarowski was widely regarded as the top NBA insider in the industry, a position in which ESPN is obviously willing to invest. He has a close relationship with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, with whom he worked at Yahoo previously. Wojnarowski is only 55. He was set to make nearly eight figures annually not just for the duration of his current deal, but for the next decade.
ESPN was not going to all of a sudden pay Wojnarowski less. In fact, he was probably in line for a raise, considering that's how the industry works for stars. Further, Woj would have had more formidable outside bidders in three years, given that NBC and Amazon both secured rights for the NBA for the next 11 years.
Let's be conservative and say Wojnarowski rode out the next three years at ESPN and signed another five-year deal afterward at $10 million a year (I suspect it'd be higher). He could easily be walking away from $70-plus million by retiring in his mid-50s.
If not more.
In an era when Skip Bayless, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Al Michaels, and Jim Nantz each signed mega deals in their mid-to-late 60s, Wojnarowski's decision to retire could ultimately cost him $100 million in media money.
So, either Wojnarowski really wanted to run St. Bonaventure's basketball program or he was simply sick of his job beyond repair.
© Anne-Marie Caruso via Imagn Content Services, LLC
(© Anne-Marie Caruso via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
"I’m telling you that that lifestyle is a mental health calamity. I would not want it no matter how much it pays," Dan Le Batard said on his show, responding to Wojnarowski's media retirement.
"For him to get out when the information person is more valuable than they’ve ever been, I don’t think it’s suspicious, I think it’s everything to do with lifestyle happiness. That is a job that it’s almost impossible to be happy in."
Honestly, good for Wojnarowski.
While working in media is hardly akin to working in a shop or digging ditches – and Wojnarowski made more in a year than most blue-collar workers make in a lifetime --his job required nearly 24/7 access to his phone.
Like Adam Schefter, the top NFL insider, Wojnarowski has to obsessively hound sources and make himself available to tweet about some transaction a few seconds before the others.
"It takes over your life. You can't kind of do the job, you have to live the job, and he was done living the job," Schefter said of Wojnarowski on-air. "Now he gets to do what he wants, which is exactly how it should be."
The job is kind of ridiculous. But it pays.
Now, it's up to ESPN to find someone else to take on that lifestyle (for probably a lot of money, but nowhere near as much as it paid Woj). Interestingly, Chris Haynes and Shams Charania (who are regarded as the second and third top NBA insiders) are both currently media-free agents.
Expect ESPN to sign one of them. We'd recommend Haynes, who has a fun personality and is less of an eccentric egomaniac.
Finally, the Chinese Communist Party was likely upset by today's news. There's no guarantee that Wojnarowski's replacement will be such a stooge.
In 2020, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley emailed the NBA and several reporters about the league kowtowing to Beijing and refusing to support the U.S. military. Hawley wrote the following in his letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver:
"The truth is that your decisions about which messages to allow and which to censor—much like the censorship decisions of the [Chinese Community Party]—are themselves statements about your association's values. If I am right—if the NBA is more committed to promoting the CCP's interests than to celebrating its home nation—your fans deserve to know that is your view. If not, prove me wrong. Let your players stand up for the Uighurs and the people of Hong Kong. Let them stand up for American law enforcement if they so choose. Give them the choice to write 'Back the Blue' on their jerseys. Or 'Support Our Troops.' Maybe 'God Bless America.' What could be more American than that?"
Here's how Wojnarowski responded.
Don't be surprised if China invests in St. Bonaventure's NIL fund.