Woj Wants His Corners

“I ain’t no suit-wearing businessman like you,” Avon Barksdale told Stringer Bell, indicating that he would not sell out his principles even or especially if it meant a life of greater aggregate comfort. “I’m just a gangster, I suppose. And I want my corners.”

It matters not that ESPN and the NBA agreed that the former’s reporters wouldn’t tip picks (Yahoo and TNT agreed to the same; Yahoo’s agreement was similarly disregarded by Woj’s former protege Shams Charania, who’s been trailing Woj all evening). Adrian Wojnarowski just couldn’t sit this one out.

Former ESPN’ers Jeff Goodman and Marc Stein tipped the first two, then Stein beat Woj by about a minute to news that Luka Doncic was going to Dallas; Woj then was first to the details that it was contingent on the Mavs picking Trae Young to send him to the Hawks. From there, the gloves were off.

All of these, using modified modifiers, were before they came on TV:

According to Andrew Marchand of the NY Post, the NBA conducted a survey which revealed that fans preferred picks not get tipped on Twitter. But, the reality is that anyone who doesn’t have the discipline to stay off Twitter is going to have the picks spoiled. You have to make a decision.

To me, there’s high comedy in Woj doing this when he’s not supposed to. Like, both the NBA and ESPN told the New York Times he wouldn’t. Woj may have left Yahoo for the Mothership, but it has to just burn him to his core for other people to disseminate this information before he does. He couldn’t bear it. And, that’s what propelled him to the point that he can basically do this with impunity.

UPDATE: An ESPN spokesperson sent the following statement: “Woj excelled last night. He was on top of every Draft-related development. We saw again why he and our coverage team is the best in the business. We expanded our efforts last night and we look forward to working with the NBA to further grow the property this year.”