Former ESPN Insider Adrian Wojnarowski Shares He Has Prostate Cancer — and How Co-Worker's Death Added to Decision to Leave

Adrian Wojnarowski has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the longtime ESPN basketball reporter revealed in a new interview this week.

Wojnarowski, 55, first spoke about the diagnosis in a profile about his recent career change published by Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix this week.

The longtime NBA insider says he was diagnosed in March after two blood tests the previous month showed elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and his doctor recommended taking a biopsy.

Wonjarowski told SI the cancer is “pretty limited in scope” and that he has no symptoms. “When you hear ‘cancer,’ you think about it going through your body like Pac-Man,” the longtime reporter said, adding that he now goes for quarterly checkups to monitor the disease. “Prostate cancer, it generally stays confined to your prostate and is typically slow growing.”

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Wojnarowski — widely known among sports fans and reporters simply as “Woj” — later wrote on X that he hopes discussing his diagnosis will help raise awareness for other men to get checked for the disease.

“Appreciate all the kind words and concern but I’m going to be fine,” Wojnarowski posted on Thursday, Dec. 5. “My goal in sharing a prostate cancer diagnosis is to encourage screening and testing among men. Early diagnosis will make all the difference for me — and many others too.”

Wojnarowski is married to his college sweetheart Amy, 54. The couple shares two children together: Ben, 22, and Annie, 25.

Wojnarowski’s name became synonymous with major breaking sports news over the last two decades as an NBA reporter for Yahoo! Sports, and later ESPN. But the famed basketball reporter made his own headlines in September when he announced he was walking away from a $7.3 million salary at ESPN and taking on a new, $75,000-per-year job as the general manager of the men’s basketball program at St. Bonaventure University, his alma mater.

“What I was doing, it just wasn’t fulfilling anymore,” Wojnarowski told SI. “I was just done. This is what gets me excited. To learn something new, to be part of something like this. It’s a whole new challenge.”

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Wojnarowski also says his doubts about staying on at ESPN were elevated earlier this year after longtime NFL reporter Chris Mortensen died from throat cancer, he explained to SI.

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Wojnarowski says he was shocked to see how many ESPN coworkers didn’t travel to Arkansas for Mortensen’s memorial service. “It made me remember that the job isn’t everything,” he told SI. “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.”

In the end, Wojnarowski explained: “The only reason to stay was the money. That wasn’t a good enough reason.”

Now at St. Bonaventure University, Wojnarowski told SI he’s already feeling fulfilled with his new post. “There’s nowhere else on the planet I would work this hard for,” Wojnarowski explained. “I can’t say I won’t do something else someday. But nothing like this.”

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