Eight years after he arrived at ESPN as part of the arrival of NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, veteran NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony is leaving the network.
Givony announced his departure Thursday on X, about a month after what will be his final NBA Draft cycle with the Worldwide Leader.
“My time at ESPN has come to an end. Thanks to everyone, past and present, who helped me grow professionally the past 8 years,” Givony said. “Although ESPN offered an extension, we were unable to find alignment on my value to the company.”
Givony added that he will continue working in basketball prospect evaluation at DraftExpress, the company he founded two decades ago.
My time at ESPN has come to an end. Thanks to everyone, past and present, who helped me grow professionally the past 8 years.
Although ESPN offered an extension, we were unable to find alignment on my value to the company.
I will continue to analyze the NBA Draft, college, high… pic.twitter.com/VBhG41h05L
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) July 24, 2025
During his time at ESPN, Givony continued to run DraftExpress as a consulting service and database for basketball teams around the world. He is known in basketball circles for his connections overseas and his expertise in prospects from Europe and the rest of the world.
That would have appeared to make Givony a perfect fit continuing to work in the media at a time when many of the best players in the NBA are coming from Europe. But it appears that Givony felt undervalued in negotiations with ESPN and Disney bosses.
Givony’s departure opens a massive opportunity in NBA media. Givony’s right-hand man, Mike Schmitz, left ESPN to work in the Portland Trail Blazers’ front office in 2023. For a few NBA draft cycles, former Sports Illustrated staffer Jeremy Woo has stepped in to help replace Schmitz.
Because ESPN has rights to the NBA Draft and coverage is still a relatively niche cottage industry, there is no obvious “next Givony” as there was when Shams Charania replaced Wojnarowski last fall. While a veteran draft reporter like Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor, TNT Sports’ Jonathan Wasserman or The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie could step up and grow their chops on live video and television to replace Givony, it could also be a chance for an existing ESPN NBA analyst to slide into draft coverage.
With Givony’s departure, front office insider Bobby Marks is the last remaining part of the team that Wojnarowski brought with him to ESPN in 2017.