Michael Wilbon Steps Away From ESPN on Indefinite Leave to Focus on His Health

Michael Wilbon is stepping away from ESPN. The longtime co-host of Pardon the Interruption announced on Monday that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from PTI and from his NBA duties at ESPN and ABC, so he can focus on his health after what he described as struggles with multiple health issues in recent months.

Wilbon, 67, shared the news in a statement posted to social media, reported by Barrett Media and The Spun. He framed the decision in the language of the sports world he has covered for more than four decades.

“This isn’t retirement, but it is a trip to the injured list. Hopefully not an extended one.”

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He was direct about what the leave is not. Wilbon stressed that his struggles are all health-related — explicitly not alcohol and not gambling — and quoted a close friend’s line that has followed him as the issues grew bigger: “the bill has come due.”

Wilbon acknowledged he probably should have stepped back sooner. He said he should have listened to medical professionals and to the people closest to him — Tony Kornheiser included — who saw worrisome signs in recent years and suggested he take time away earlier. His stated goal is to come out of this period feeling much better and ready to return. He offered no timetable, and he has not specified what the health issues are.

ESPN closed ranks behind him immediately. “Michael and his family have ESPN’s full support as he takes time away to focus on his health and well-being,” ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “He’s an important member of our ESPN team and widely respected by his peers, sports fans and so many others throughout our industry. We are here for Michael every step of the way and look forward to welcoming him back whenever he is ready.”

ESPN has not named a replacement to sit opposite Kornheiser on PTI. Both hosts have contract extensions running into 2028, per Barrett Media, so the partnership has a future on paper whenever Wilbon is ready to resume it.

25 years of Wilbon and Kornheiser

Wilbon and Kornheiser have co-hosted Pardon the Interruption since the show debuted on October 22, 2001 — a 25-year run that the program celebrated just weeks ago, and one of the longest partnerships in sports television. The two were Washington Post colleagues before they were television sparring partners, and their daily argument became a fixture of ESPN’s lineup and of ABC’s NBA coverage, where Wilbon has been a studio voice for years.

Before television, Wilbon spent three decades at The Washington Post, joining in 1980 and becoming one of the most decorated sports columnists in the country before leaving the paper full-time in 2010. Along the way he covered ten Olympic Games, every Super Bowl since 1987 and nearly every Final Four since 1982.

A health history he has never hidden

Wilbon has been open about his health before. In January 2008 he survived a heart attack in Scottsdale, where doctors performed an angioplasty, and he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes the same day — a turning point he went on to write and speak about at length in The Washington Post and elsewhere, urging readers to take warning signs seriously.

That history is part of why Monday’s announcement landed the way it did across the industry. ESPN’s Pete Thamel was among the colleagues who posted support publicly: “Prayers with the great @RealMikeWilbon.”

For now, there is no date circled and no fill-in announced. There is only Wilbon’s own framing of it: not retirement, a trip to the injured list — and a man who has spent 25 years arguing sports for a living finally taking the advice he says he should have taken years ago. More Previously sports coverage follows the story as it develops.