From Timofey Mozgov to Anthony Davis, here’s a look at the five most memorable Woj bombs in Lakers history.
Longtime NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski dropped his biggest Woj bomb ever on Wednesday, announcing that he would be retiring from ESPN. It goes without saying that he altered the sports reporting landscape.
The very fact that you can simply write the term “Woj bomb” and the vast majority of sports fans — and basically all NBA fans — know what you’re talking about is a testament to his impact.
There were few things better than that moment when you get a notification on your phone and realize Woj just dropped a scoop out of absolutely nowhere. There was always a moment where you held your breath, both wondering if it was about your team and if it was good or bad news.
The Lakers were certainly no different than anyone else in that regard. Some of the biggest Woj bombs ever involved the Lakers.
So, let’s relive some of those moments, both of excitement and dread.
Honorable mentions
Some of these we’re including in the honorable mentions because he wasn’t the first to report it. For example, the LeBron James tweet might be oft-retweeted, but it was Klutch Sports that posted a press release first.
Source confirms: The Suns are sending Steve Nash to the Lakers for draft picks.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 5, 2012
Lakers make Magic Johnson President of Basketball Operations, fire GM Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, team says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 21, 2017
LeBron James has agreed to 4-year, $154M deal with Lakers, Klutch Sports says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 2, 2018
The Clippers are trading Mike Muscala to the Lakers for Michael Beasley and Ivica Zubac, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 7, 2019
Negotiations between the Los Angeles Lakers and Ty Lue have reached an impasse without a deal to make him the franchise’s next head coach, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 8, 2019
The Lakers are near a deal to acquire Washington’s Russell Westbrook for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a 2021 first-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 29, 2021
ESPN Sources: The Lakers are finalizing deal to land Minnesota’s D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt in trade including Mike Conley and picks to Timberwolves and Russell Westbrook and a lightly protected 2027 LA first-round pick to Jazz.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 9, 2023
Of these honorable mentions, though, none stings as much as seeing that Zubac trade. Good lord.
5. The trade that never was
Yes, I am going to trigger fans from the start. Everyone loves to have some old wounds reopened.
A deal has been reached in principle to send Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers, an executive in the three-team talks tells Yahoo! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 9, 2011
This was at the very, very early stages of social media and before Woj bombs were really a thing. If a tweet and story like this had come 10 years later, it would have been at the top of the list.
Even still, this was a monumental moment and I will never not be angry about it.
4. A shocking trade
The real Woj bombs came out of absolute nowhere and shocked everyone. And boy, did this one shock Lakers fans.
Lakers are trading Tim Mozgov and D’Angelo Russell to Nets for Brook Lopez and 27th pick Thursday, sources say.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2017
D’Angelo Russell was still seen as the future of the franchise and the Lakers were about to add Lonzo Ball alongside him for the backcourt of the future. And then, out of nowhere, he was dealt in a salary dump trade.
For a shock factor, this ranks pretty how up there for the Lakers. Unfortunately, this is not the last time Timofey Mozgov appears on this list…
3. An unexpected midnight move
The Lakers are making a serious run at Cleveland free agent center Timofey Mozgov, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2016
If we’re talking about shocking Woj bombs, though, nothing is topping this. The entirety of free agency in 2016 deserves a documentary someday and one of the leading stories of that will be Mozgov getting an insane amount of money right out of the gate.
If I talk about this any more, though, I’m just going to get annoyed all over again.
2. Landing the franchise’s next star
This is a bit of a two-parter. Lakers fans will certainly remember the tweet announcing Anthony Davis coming to SoCal. The Lakers and Pelicans had been negotiating for months to get a deal done, dating back to the trade deadline earlier that season.
The Pelicans have agreed to a deal to trade Anthony Davis to the Lakers for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and three first-round picks – including the No. 4 overall in 2019 Draft, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 15, 2019
And to that point, another very memorable tweet in this saga…
After speculating what his future would hold and if the Lakers would be involved in trading for AD, Woj’s tweet started the sweepstakes weeks before the trade deadline.
1. The biggest Woj bomb ever
Technically, this is only tangentially related to the Lakers, but it’s still a tweet Lakers fans were paying lots of attention to. In 2019, after trading for AD, the Lakers had cleared the books to make a run at Kawhi Leonard as well.
Oklahoma City is trading All-Star Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for a record-setting collection of draft choices, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2019
The secrecy from Kawhi’s camp meant everyone was glued to their phones, waiting for that Woj bomb. And when it came, late, late at night, boy was it worth the wait. It wasn’t an outright tweet that Kawhi had picked the Clippers that shocked everyone, but one that they were giving up everything to trade for Paul George to seal the deal.
Not only were the Lakers missing out on Kawhi, but they were also missing out on the guy who had spurned them the year prior, officially kicking off the “rivalry” between LA teams that never really lived up to it’s billing.