When Meta launched its “Twitter killer,” Threads, I figured there was an easy test to determine whether the social network was for real or whether it would quickly wane in relevance like previous knockoffs. The test consisted of two simple questions: (1) Is Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN’s top NBA insider, on the app? Yes, he is. (2) Has he dropped a “Woj bomb,” sports-world parlance for when the journalist is the first to tweet out breaking trade and free-agency news? Also yes. (Woj’s first Threads bomb: “The Portland Trail Blazers are matching restricted free agent Matisse Thybulle’s three-year $33 million offer sheet with the Dallas Mavericks.”)
This was my barometer because even though my sports-obsessed friends and I mostly stopped tweeting years ago, we’ve remained tied to the social network as an essential way to stay up to date on the latest in the NBA and NFL. Woj bombs exemplify why Twitter has been so vital to well-sourced journalists and fans alike; until Threads, it was the only place that really made sense to share timely pieces of breaking news.
“Somewhere along the way, [Twitter] became the quickest way to dispense information to the highest number of people,” Adam Schefter, ESPN’s top NFL insider, told me. “It’s become so ingrained and entrenched in your thinking that it’s almost hard to imagine a world without it.”
With Elon Musk making the platform junkier and less hospitable by the day, journalists and others have been wondering where to turn next. The fact that Wojnarowski and Schefter quickly hopped aboard the Threads train indicates that the new social network might offer journalists a genuine alternative. They’ve been joined there by one of their baseball counterparts, Ken Rosenthal, a senior writer at the Athletic, as well as Woj’s competitor Shams Charania, the Athletic’s senior NBA insider.
Wojnarowski, who has 6 million Twitter followers, had been a sports reporter long before the invention of the social network. He is not too concerned about Twitter’s downward spiral, despite the platform’s role in his success. “There’s no question that [social media] benefited my career, but I think my career has been more than just that … The most important thing is having the information. That’s what I worry about,” he told me. “We will figure out the ways to deliver it. That’s what I can control. I can’t control the functionality of Twitter.” After ESPN set him up with an account on Threads, he noticed that many of his Instagram followers had migrated over. “So far it seems like a place with an audience,” he said. “And that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Threads “seems new and fresh and exciting,” Schefter, who has over 10 million Twitter followers, told me. (Though, like many other users, he complained that his feed is full of people who he doesn’t follow.) But like Woj, he’s not picky when it comes to platforms. “I spent almost 16 years as a newspaper reporter,” he said. “At one time in our lives, newspapers had become an indispensable part of the way we consume information, and Twitter grew into that,” he told me.
Rosenthal, who has over 1 million Twitter followers, told me that while the platform has certainly helped his career, “it is not integral to journalism.” In fact, he said, Twitter has “perverted” the journalistic process by rewarding speed. “When I would break a story [on Twitter] and see someone confirm it in two minutes — is that really a win? People definitely recognize me for it,” he said. “But to see young people growing up thinking that’s where it’s at, that bothers me … If Twitter went away tomorrow, I don’t know that it would be a bad thing for our business.” Even before Musk took over, Rosenthal started making a concerted effort to focus on writing “more meaningful” stories, as opposed to the breaking-news variety.
Rosenthal has nonetheless joined Threads but hasn’t started using it yet. While he has no plans to quit social media, he doesn’t have any sort of emotional connection to Twitter, nor the personal brand that it has allowed him to build. Same goes for Schefter and Wojnarowski, who finds the notion cringey. “We are not brands,” Rosenthal said. “Toothpaste is a brand.”
The scoop mavens may protest about being pigeonholed, but the news they deliver is an essential part of the sports social-media ecosystem. (Threads has indicated it’s not particularly interested in hard news, but sports news is different.) And their presence means that Threads has a fighting chance of replicating, or at least coming close to replicating, the freewheeling fandom culture that has thrived on Twitter over the last few years. On Monday, Woj posted a quote from Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin on both Twitter and Threads. “If it takes months, it takes months,” the GM said on finding a trade destination for the team’s superstar point guard Damian Lillard. On Threads, ESPN reposted the quote with the caption, “Us attempting to figure out @threadsapp.” Cute, sure, but also important: The network has given the site its imprimatur. The willingness of so many sports Twitter stars to adopt Threads is another sign that Zuck’s Twitter killer is here to stay — for better or worse.
