ESPN colleague gets honest about Adrian Wojnarowski's retirement

Longtime ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski’s abrupt retirement from reporting was a shock to many media personalities, including those who he worked closely with.

Wojnarowski’s explanation for his retirement was simple. In a statement, he said he is “no longer driven” to the commitment it takes to be ESPN’s top insider . Instead, he will serve as the general manager of the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure University.

Ramona Shelburne has been at ESPN for the entirety of Wojnarowski’s tenure at the network, working closely alongside him as a frequent contributor on NBA Today and SportsCenter along with her role as a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Despite this, even she didn’t find out about Wojnarowski’s retirement until everyone else did. She shared her initial reaction to the news during a recent guest appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast .

“When you did,” said Shelburne when asked by AA podcast host Brandon Contes when she found out. “I think he had hoped to tell a couple of us before that announcement went out. But then it started to get around. Like every news story, once you tell one person or two people, it starts to get around. It started to get around and you lose control of the story. I think he made the right call there. I talked to him later that day. He was like ‘I’m sorry, I was going to call you.’

“But yeah, I was really bummed. I don’t know, he and I have worked so closely together and we have very complimentary roles. He was in the league chair for news breaking. But we all are in constant communication. Now when I hear something I’m like oh, who am I gonna call? I miss calling him.”

While Shelburne is going to miss having someone like Wojnarowski as a colleague, she did later say that she is happy for him and his family now that he will have much more free time.

“I was sad more than anything but I was really happy for him and his wife,” said Shelburne. “Because I feel like he’s running towards something. And it’s something that… I think I can say this now, he’s recruited me once while he was at Yahoo. He was building The Vertical out and he tried to go recruit me to come work with him. And I was really tempted because of him. I didn’t want to leave ESPN. ESPN is the biggest platform in sports. I appreciate everything I’ve gotten since I joined ESPN and you don’t walk away from that lightly.

“But Woj was calling and I took the call. And he was the draw, just seeing how hard somebody works. How he did what he did. I feel like I had a front-row seat to see how the greatest news breaker in NBA history has done his job. It’s unbelievable to peek behind that curtain. To see how that guy is wired and still maintain a humanity to him. I don’t know how he did that for as long as he did, to maintain the humanity. I know he certainly didn’t sleep that much. But he still is a human. And that’s really amazing that he was able to do that.

“Good for you, man. Good for Adrian, good for his kids, good for his wife Amy. I’ve gotten to know her over the years too. We hang out when she comes to L.A. with him. I just think that’s a pretty baller move. To just walk away at the top of your game, right? You’re the king, man. You just left the iron throne. It was pretty amazing.”

Shelburne also admitted that Wojnarowski’s retirement led to some added stress for her, as she made sure anything he was working on wasn’t lost.

“For a couple hours, I was processing what that meant. I was thinking, I gotta make sure we don’t lose news he might have been working on… Jump into the fray, call our mutuals. We both call a lot of the same people. I have different areas where I’m strong. He has a lot of areas where he’s strong. But there is a lot of overlap in that Venn diagram. Now I gotta make sure those people don’t leave. We still gotta do the business. I gotta call people on staff. It was a lot at once. And I had a couple stores due too.

“I had carved out the rest of the day to work on my story. And it was like, oh boy, there goes that day. I was gonna write the rest of the day and then I was like, eh, I’m not getting to that until tonight. So I think I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning that night writing because I had to wait for the kids to go to bed and then I can focus and stay up and crank something out. But I was really scattered. He was such a leader and he was such a hard worker that we have to just all process this, reorient, and make sure that we do the job. We’re the Worldwide Leader. We gotta lead.”

Shortly after Wojnarowski’s retirement, it was reported by Puck’s John Ourand that ESPN may not hire a replacement for him . So we may see Shelburne take on even more responsibility in his absence.

Regardless, Wojnarowski has clearly impacted Shelburne’s career as both a close colleague and friend outside of their media obligations.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page .

The post Ramona Shelburne found out about Adrian Wojnarowski’s retirement like everyone else appeared first on Awful Announcing .