Adrian Wojnarowski Reveals Cancer Diagnosis After Announcing His Retirement
Wojnarowski said he was diagnosed just months before his ESPN exit: "In my mind, I didn’t have value to them anymore."
Adrian Wojnarowski has shed more light on his shocking ESPN exit.
Roughly six months before announcing his retirement, the longtime NBA insider was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Wojnarowski confirmed this in a December 5 Sports Illustrated feature, explaining how his health issues motivated him to leave his multi-million-dollar job with the network.
“I didn’t want to spend one more day of my life waiting on someone’s MRI or hitting an agent at 1 a.m. about an ankle sprain...” he told SI. “The only reason to stay was the money. That wasn’t a good enough reason. Our audience deserved somebody who’s fully immersed in the NBA every single day and I would not be. In my mind, I didn’t have value to them anymore.”
Just several months after receiving his diagnosis, Wojnarowski attended the funeral of NFL insider Chris Mortensen, who died after a years-long battle with throat cancer. Wojnarowski recalled that many of their colleagues did not attend the service, which affected his outlook on his ESPN job.
“It made me remember that the job isn’t everything,” Wojnarowski recalled. “In the end it’s just going to be your family and close friends. And it’s also, like, nobody gives a s---. Nobody remembers [breaking stories] in the end. It’s just vapor.”
Wojnarowski told SI he had zero symptoms and that the cancer was “pretty limited in scope.” In addition to “quarterly checkups and regular monitoring,” Wojnarowski has been advised to clean up his diet, up his exercise, and improve his sleep. Although surgery is still an option, his doctors have deemed it unnecessary.
“When you hear cancer, you think about it going through your body like Pac-Man,” he said. “Prostate cancer, it generally stays confined to your prostate and is typically slow growing.”
In his retirement announcement, Wojnarowski said he had accepted a general manager position for the men’s basketball team at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. He said he didn’t see himself returning to the media and has zero interest in other GM opportunities.
“There’s nowhere else on the planet I would work this hard for,” he confessed. “I can’t say I won’t do something else someday. But nothing like this.”
