Even before Adam Silver revealed the NBA franchise picks in the Draft, Adrian Wojnarowski had made a habit for years of “spoiling” each name seconds before. What ruin the suspense for players and viewers, but this year, the best-informed journalist in the NBA will be silent.
“When I switched from Yahoo! at ESPN, I saw what the show’s responsibilities were and felt I had to get more involved” thus explained Adrian Wojnarowski at the microphone of The Ringer. “I will not be giving draft picks this year. Unless, at the top of the Draft, all of a sudden something weird happens in second or third place… »
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The highest paid journalist in the industry, “Woj” no longer needs to prove himself. While he is followed by nearly six million people on Twitter, he will do less on social networks.
“I created my Twitter account one evening of Draft, I think it was in 2009” he continues. “It’s because I had all this information that I was getting in real time and I was like, by the time I got it out on the internet, it was just smoke… I thought, ‘ That’s Twitter, that’s a place for that. »
Instead of rushing to tweet, Adrian Wojnarowski believes he will now be more helpful by standing above it all. “I think today it’s important to stay on top of these exchanges and movements, and to be able to tell a little more stories about what is happening in real time at the time of the Draft. Instead of racking my brains trying to get New Orleans’ 14th-place pick when it’s bound to be announced on the show.” he concludes, explaining that his role has also changed on ESPN.
It is also that the channel is a partner of the NBA, which has never appreciated seeing the suspense of the Draft being thus “spoiled” a few seconds before David Stern, Adam Silver or Mark Tatum make their announcements.
Nevertheless, if Adrian Wojnarowski has nothing more to prove and will therefore no longer “disclose” the Draft choices upstream, other “insiders” should continue to do so in his place, while Shams Charania or Chris Haynes had also embarked on the race in recent seasons on Twitter.
