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Tim Bontemps
San Francisco-Adrian Wojnarowski, the award-winning former pribriter ESPN who redefined the journalism industry with his skill in the news, was honored on Friday with the Curt Gowdy Media Award.
“I just hoped to have a career as a sports journalist, and for me this honor reflects all the people who believed in me, they gave me opportunities, they helped me on this path, and that is what comes to mind first.” Wojnarowski told ESPN shortly after Friday’s announcement. “Many of my idols, from Jackie Macmullan to Michael Wilbon and Doris Burke and Harvey Araton, have been previously honored, and is beyond my wildest dreams to be in that company.”
The Wojnarowski journalism career began in its native Connecticut in Waterbury, where the University of Connecticut covered before moving to the Fresno bee in California and then to the Bergen record in New Jersey.
He went to Yahoo Sports in 2007, where his implacable impulse created a seemingly endless series of last minute news, which was known as “Woj bombs.” A decade later, he joined ESPN in his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut, and spent the following years solidifying his place as one of the most influential sports journalists in history.
“I arrived at a unique moment in the media,” said Wojnarowski, “and I arrived in a time in the media and the league was changing, and I was the beneficiary of a good moment and an incredible support of people with whom I worked in the NBA, ESPN and Yahoo “.
In September, Wojnarowski’s last Wojnarowski bomb could have been the most shocking, when he retired from journalism to assume a new role as general manager of the male basketball team in his alma mater, San Bonaventure.
Wojnarowski was one of the four winners of the Gowdy Prize announced on Friday, receiving honor in the Insight category.
Michelle Smith, a crow of women’s sports for a long time and specifically female basketball, won the award for the media, which he wrote for ESPN, ESPNW, San Francisco Chronicle and Aol Fanhouse, among other publications.
There were two recipients of the Electronic Media Award: Clark Kellogg, the former basketball analyst of CBS College, and George Blaha, the legendary man of the Detroit Pistons playing by game. Kellogg has been an essential part of CBS university basketball coverage since 1993, especially its annual march Madness chronicle. Blaha is in its 49th season calling Pistons games. According to the team, it has called more than 3,700 regular seasonal games and more than 260 playoff competitions.
The winner of the Bunn Lifetime Alfievement Award is Jeff Twiss Bunn Award, who began working for the franchise in 1981 and has been part of four championships in Boston.
“To be honest, I’m still pinching until my arm hurts,” Twiss told ESPN. “Red Auerbach was my boss for a few years, and I could spend time rubbing shoulders with people in the Hall of Fame and could only dream of being there with them someday, and now that dream is a reality.”
Gowdy’s winners will be honored from September 5 to 6 along with the class of the Naismith Hall of this year, for which the finalists were also announced on Friday.
