Bobby Marks explains how Adrian Wojnarowski helped sparked his media career

Many of Adrian Wojnarowski’s former colleagues have recently opened up about how their careers have been impacted by the former ESPN insider following his departure from the network. And during a recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast , ESPN’s Bobby Marks followed suit by sharing the story of how Wojnarowski gave him his first break in the business.

Marks didn’t take the traditional path to a sports media career, serving in the Brooklyn Nets front office for 20 years before making the jump to the sports media world.

Wojnarowski wasn’t the first media member to present Marks with an opportunity to pursue a career in sports media. But Marks explained to AA podcast host Brandon Contes how Wojnarowski gave him his first “big break”.

“When my contract wasn’t renewed and I had a year left with them, I took a month off,” said Marks. “Woj was my big break and everything. But I always go back and give credit to Marc Stein. Because Marc was at ESPN at the time and he got me my first in doing TV. I just kept on calling people and said ‘Listen, I’m getting paid for a year, I’m getting bored’. I was a month in, the draft was coming around, and free agency. Marc kind of got me in in terms of doing TV work. But it was really just going on social media and breaking down how trades happen. That’s kind of my foray into the media world as far as how things kind of started.

“I saw Woj on the concourse in Vegas and he’s like ‘I really like what you’re doing and I think you’d be really good with our group and give us a front-office perspective. But you’ve gotta write.’ He’s like you actually have to write 2,000-word articles and stuff. I had to figure that part out. I had never done that before. Fortunately for me, I got two freelance articles with Hoops Hype before I actually started with The Vertical at Yahoo.

“My first article was how Golden State could sign Kevin Durant. This was a year before they actually went out and signed them. And fortunately, my wife is a school teacher and she started the paragraph and showed me how to write a good middle and the conclusion. I always have nightmares when I have an assignment due because I’m not Zach Lowe, I’m not Brian Windhorst, or Ramona Shelburne, or Woj, or Tim Bontemps. I didn’t go to school to study journalism and anything like that.”

Wojnarowski would then shortly bring him in at Yahoo Sports to help bring a front-office perspective to the network. And as they say, the rest is history. Marks would write for The Vertical before ultimately joining Wojnarowski at ESPN when many at The Vertical were approached by the “Worldwide Leader”.

“It’s funny, when we were at Yahoo, it was like this band of eight of us versus the 40 at ESPN,” Marks added. “And we were doing streaming at Yahoo.com and we were doing draft shows and free agency shows. John Kosner, who was at ESPN at the time, approached the group of us and was like ‘We really want you guys. We want the group to come.’ Some of us could come because Yahoo let us out of our contracts and others had to stay and everything. But yeah, that’s the break as far as the transition from Yahoo to ESPN.”

Marks has of course gone on to have a massive impact at ESPN as one of the network’s lead Front Office Insiders, leading the way for the likes of former Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers to follow in his footsteps.

If not for Wojnarowski’s vision for The Vertical, we may have never gotten someone like Marks or Myers serving in the roles they currently serve at ESPN. And it’s safe to say that Marks in particular is quite appreciative of Wojnarowski taking a chance on him.

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