“The fact that the preeminent journalist in his field is willing to walk away from a lucrative media career to serve his alma mater in a support role is a testament to his love and passion for Bona’s,” said St. Bonaventure athletic director Bob Beretta about Adrian Wojnarowski. It has been over 10 months now since the renowned sports reporter dropped the biggest ‘Woj Bomb’ of all time: his retirement announcement.

After 7 years of working with ESPN to deliver NBA-related breaking news in a career that began in 1995, Woj left it all behind for a General Manager position at his Alma Mater. The sacrifice included letting go of around $20 million over three years- annual damages of around $7 million. Almost a year later, we finally know more about what led to the unexpected departure.

Adrian Wojnarowski recently sat down for an interview on former NBA player Mile Ilić’s podcast. During the same, he discussed his exit from ESPN and revealed the workload he used to have.

No job is easy. However, Adrian Wojnarowski’s job demanded more than a typical 9 to 5. After all, he had created the reputation of being not only one of the first, but THE first person to report any trades, signings or contract extensions that went down in the NBA. That required 24 hours of attention.

“I know what that job required of you 12 months a year, virtually 24 hours a day. I just knew what was required, and I didn’t want to meet…. I didn’t want to fulfil that requirement anymore. And that’s probably the best way I could put it,” said Woj. After dealing with so much pressure, you would think that the 56-year-old would be taking things easy in his new role, right?

Well, not really, as he revealed that “And I’m working as hard at this job. My wife looks at me sometimes and says, ‘it’s not really much different’. But, um, but I’m sure I just did the other job as long as I wanted to do it”.

It’s important to remember that Adrian Wojnarowski left $20 million on the table for a role that has an annual salary of reportedly $75,000. Woj did not highlight any regret, stating that “The only reason to stay was the money. That wasn’t a good enough reason.”

His family, consisting of his wife Amy and his children Annie and Ben, all agreed with his decision to leave. However, not much has changed work-hours-wise, and the family may already be second-guessing their approval. And while at ESPN the pressure was time-based and about being ahead of the competition, his new role seems to demand a similar attention to detail.

Adrian Wojnarowski describes the pressure associated with his new job

While he pointed out that the amount of time he spent at his new job at St. Bonaventure was similar, Mile Ilić wanted to know more. He suggested that despite working as hard, Woj would be feeling less pressure than he did with ESPN. However, even that does not seem to be true. As it turns out, the GM role comes with a different kind of pressure, doing away with any relief that his family may have felt at the time of the shift.

Woj replied, “You know, it’s different. I feel a responsibility. The pressure I feel is to our players, our university. You know, a lot of people that I’ve had lifelong relationships with at St. Bonaventure, you know, they’re looking at me to play a part in helping us be successful raising money for NIL, for Rev share, and I feel responsibility to the players we’re bringing in to make sure that they have the experience that they hope they’re going to get at Bonaventure, and then help them get to where they want to get. So, I do feel that pressure to fulfill all those things”.

As we have seen even in the NBA, GMs might not always be involved in day-to-day personnel decisions, but are often responsible for building the program/team’s infrastructure. On top of that, when serving as a college basketball team’s GM, you serve as a liaison with university leadership and manage the program’s resources, most important of which are the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. While each team’s GM would be needed to do well in his role, Woj needs to go the extra mile for St. Bonaventure. After all, it is the Atlantic 10 league’s smallest school, and has only a few living alumni who boast basketball prowess.

As ‘The New York Times’ reporter Jonno Rattman highlighted, Wojnarowski feels he has at least five years to parlay his name and image into enough revenue to raise the Bonnies’ status. To do that, he will have to put in ample time and energy.

“Listen, we all want to win and it’s important. As you know, you can’t always control. You can’t control. You have no control over that really. And so, um, but I would say it’s a different pressure. The pressure of the other job was having to be available and on all the time and not being able to sit” Woj added. “Like if we were sitting doing this interview, I would never have my phone over there and turned off. I would be looking, am I missing, you know, is something happening? Do we have to stop the taping because I’ve got to…. I don’t miss that moment to moment”.

Well, Adrian Wojnarowski made his bet. He remains fully committed to his role, and now it remains to be seen just how that commitment can transform St. Bonaventure’s basketball team for the better.