Last week was a pretty difficult one for many all over the journalism world, in particular, those over at ESPN. The sports media network laid off about 100 employees including some big name staple reporters like Jayson Stark, Ed Werder, Marc Stein and Chad Ford. But as the company moves on from some talent, it appears they’re making a push to bring in a top NBA media star, Adrian Wojnarowski.
Not only did ESPN let Marc Stein go, they also let go of other fantastic NBA writers like Ethan Sherwood Strauss, Calvin Watkins, Justin Verrier, Chad Ford and TrueHoop pioneer Henry Abbott. Moving on from these fantastic journalists and countless others is undoubtedly hard and increasingly sad for those writers and their families along with people who both looked up to them and followed their work closely.
The company has a huge television deal with the NBA and their coverage won’t slow down anytime soon. It appears that a report from back in February is getting closer to an official launch date and others connected to the company continued to report the possible move. ESPN will bring Adrian Wojnaowski and some of the members of ‘The Vertical’ to the Disney-Owned company before the 2017 NBA Draft.
Following comes from Peter Kafka of Recode
Sources familiar with ESPN’s plan say Wojnarowski will begin working for ESPN in time to cover the June 22 NBA draft. I’m told the network also intends to bring aboard some of the staff of The Vertical, the NBA site Wojnarowski launched for Yahoo 2016.
An ESPN rep declined to comment; I’ve asked Wojnarowski for comment but haven’t heard back.
