Wojnarowski, ’91, Retires From ESPN To Accept GM Role With Bonnies Basketball Program

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Adrian Wojnarowski, Senior NBA Insider for ESPN, is retiring from his award-winning journalism profession and returning to his alma mater as common supervisor for the St. Bonaventure males’s basketball program.

“I am thrilled and humbled to return to St. Bonaventure with a possibility to serve the college, Coach Mark Schmidt and our elite Atlantic 10 males’s basketball program,” Wojnarowski mentioned. “In these altering instances of faculty sports activities, I am keen to affix a championship program that mixes high-level basketball, nationwide tv publicity, professional preparation and NIL alternatives with an intimate, supportive academic surroundings.” 

In his position as common supervisor, Wojnarowski will serve the teaching workers in managing a variety of obligations together with title, picture and likeness (NIL) alternatives and as a liaison with collectives; switch portal administration; recruit, household and alumni participant relationships; skilled participant applications; and program fundraising.

Recognizing the quickly evolving panorama of faculty athletics, many energy convention and mid-major colleges have added the position of common supervisor since 2022, particularly for his or her soccer and males’s basketball applications.

“I am hopeful to share with members of our group some greatest practices realized from essentially the most profitable franchises and minds within the NBA and dedicated to opening doorways globally for our gamers each on and off the courtroom,” Wojnarowski mentioned.

Bob Beretta, vice chairman and director of Intercollegiate Athletics, mentioned Wojnarowski’s determination is an “unimaginable alternative” for the college, its athletic division and the lads’s basketball program.

“At a time of super turbulence throughout the intercollegiate athletics enterprise, we’re making a robust assertion that St. Bonaventure continues to be on the forefront of change,” Beretta mentioned. “This a daring transfer that aligns with our institutional targets to proceed to develop and flourish.”

Wojnarowski’s international community of connections within the basketball world will likely be a useful asset for this system, Beretta mentioned.

“Woj is the right individual to fill this new position, combining his intimate data of St. Bonaventure and our Franciscan values with a deep community of relationships he has constructed throughout the worlds {of professional} and intercollegiate basketball,” Beretta mentioned. “The truth that the preeminent journalist in his discipline is keen to stroll away from a profitable media profession to serve his alma mater in a help position is a testomony to his love and fervour for Bona’s.”

Schmidt referred to as the choice so as to add Wojnarowski to his workers a “dwelling run.”

“This transfer is vital to navigate the brand new panorama of faculty basketball in NIL, recruiting and retention,” mentioned Schmidt, the winningest males’s basketball coach at school historical past. “Woj is as linked as anybody within the basketball world and his decades-long community of relationships can solely assist our program stay among the many prime groups within the Atlantic 10 going ahead.”

In strolling away from a profitable contract extension he signed with ESPN in 2022, Wojnarowski now desires to present again to a college that has made an indelible impression on his life. He and his spouse, Amy, ’92, have been main benefactors to the basketball program and the Jandoli Faculty of Communication.

“I am grateful to President (Jeff) Gingerich, Bob Beretta, Coach Schmidt and all the St. Bonaventure group for welcoming my spouse, Amy, and me again into the campus group in a brand new position,” Wojnarowski mentioned. “We met on this lovely campus as undergraduates and have shared a lifelong love with the college that continues now. I am able to get to work.”

Wojnarowski, Class of 1991, introduced his retirement from ESPN on X (previously Twitter) this morning. 

“This craft remodeled my life, however I’ve determined to retire from ESPN and the information trade,” Wojnarowski wrote. “I perceive the dedication required in my position and it is an funding that I am now not pushed to make. Time is not in limitless provide and I wish to spend mine in methods which can be extra personally significant.”

Previous to his work for ESPN, the place he is been since 2017, Wojnarowski labored for Yahoo Sports activities, the place he spent almost 10 years, together with two as editor of The Vertical. His standout profession in journalism contains almost 10 years at The File of New Jersey (the place he was twice named the APSE Columnist of the 12 months), in addition to a number of years every on the Fresno Bee and Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American.

Wojnarowski’s friends voted him the Nationwide Sports activities Media Affiliation’s Nationwide Sportswriter of the 12 months in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He joined a distinguished listing of greats to have received that award in a minimum of three successive years – Pink Smith, Jim Murray, Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Bob Ryan and Tom Verducci.

Wojnarowski is the New York Occasions bestselling creator of “The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball’s Most Inconceivable Dynasty.”

The college’s Graduation speaker and recipient of an honorary diploma in 2022, Wojnarowski was named the Jandoli Faculty’s 2019 Alumnus of the 12 months, and has been inducted onto the Jandoli Faculty’s Wall of Distinguished Graduates.

A press convention to welcome Amy and Adrian again to the Bonaventure group will likely be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, within the Fast Middle for the Arts theater. The campus group is welcome to attend.

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In regards to the College: The nation’s first Franciscan college, St. Bonaventure College is a group dedicated to remodeling the lives of our college students inside and outdoors the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong dedication to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities within the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for worth and #14 for innovation by U.S. Information and World Report (2024).