Nneka Ogwumike Still Isn’t Thinking About the End

Nneka Ogwumike’s résumé is about as complete as it gets. Over the course of her decorated WNBA career, the tireless veteran has racked up a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP honor, a championship ring, and nine trips to the All-Star Game. She is one of the most respected players in league history and authored an unforgettable game winner in a do-or-die Finals game. Every time she's suited up for Team USA—including the 2014 and 2018 World Cups—she's brought home gold. (Controversially, Ogwumike has never been selected for an Olympics team, making her the only WNBA MVP never to play at the Games.) At 34 years old and now entering her 14th season—her second with the Seattle Storm, following a dozen with the Los Angeles Sparks—Ogwumike could retire today and rest assured that she’s done more than enough to merit a Hall of Fame induction. So what keeps Ogwumike going?

“I really do think that moving to Seattle put a battery in my back,” she told me. “Being able to do all the things that I love doing, and also get to know myself as an athlete in a different and new way, has been really great.”

Ogwumike and I were chatting by phone during a break in the Storm’s preseason training camp. There’s a lot that she’s come to love about Seattle—the team’s state of the art training facility, for one, and the crispness of the Cascadian air—but in many ways she’s still processing her decision to leave the Sparks, the franchise that drafted her first overall in 2012 and which she’d led to a championship just four years later.

“The hardest part of switching when you've been with a team for so long was feeling as though you're not betraying anybody,” she said. “There's that element of loyalty that you have to work through, and square with yourself that you're making a good decision for yourself. That doesn't take away all of the history and relationships and the impact of the original franchise.”

With the Sparks, Ogwumike formed a dynamic duo with Candace Parker, shepherding LA to that 2016 championship. She also had the chance to play with her younger sister, Chiney, who was a Rookie of the Year and multiple-time All-Star herself before becoming a sports media star. It’s been a full basketball life, and when pressed on it, she has no problem saying it’s been more substantial than her wildest dreams.

“I definitely didn't think I would be playing this long,” Ogwumike admitted. “It's not that I didn't think it was something that I would want, it was hard for me to envision something like that. Right now, I'm not even really thinking about any end. I'm thinking about today. Although I do realize that there are definitely more years behind me than in front of me.”

Ogwumike ranks third among active WNBA players in points, behind Tina Charles and DeWanna BonnerCatalina Fragoso/Getty Images

Ogwumike grew up in Texas before enrolling at Stanford University in 2008, where she guided the Cardinal to the Final Four in each of her four seasons. Little did she know that her stint in Palo Alto would roll directly into a career spent entirely on the West Coast. “I’m from Houston, so I’m Southern, [but] I'm officially a West Coast girl,” she said. “I've been in the Bay, I've been in LA, and now I'm in the PNW [Pacific Northwest]. The West Coast just feels good for me.”

Upon joining the Sparks in 2012, Ogwumike made an immediate imprint on the City of Angels. After WNBA icon Lisa Leslie retired in 2009, the Sparks went through a miniature flop era before Ogwumike showed up and ignited a run of nine straight playoff appearances, including that epic Finals victory in 2016. Ogwumike describes that period—about a decade and a half into the WNBA’s existence—not as the league’s infancy but rather its puberty. This was long before women’s basketball went supernova. Nowadays, television broadcasts easily surpass a million viewers and players are flown to games on private flights. Ogwumike, who is president of the league’s players’ union and has been instrumental in securing these advancements, sings the same song as most female hoopers: Y’all just weren’t paying attention before.

“You see how it changes with the talent but without the marketability,” Ogwumike said, referring to the early stages of her career when national excitement was lacking. “Then you see how it changes with the talent and the marketability. Now we're almost on the other side of it. It's quite remarkable.” Like with every other professional sports league now, the audience is interested in a plethora of things that have nothing to do with wins and losses. The WNBA has developed its own thriving stan culture, with online zealots dissecting each and every move their favorite player makes, whether it’s the way they shake hands with opponents after the final whistle, or what they wear to the pregame tunnel. Ogwumike has been around long enough to remember when players showed up for the game AAU-style. “Back in the day, we used to wear our jersey to the game!” she said, laughing.

Times have changed, though, and with the extra attention on the league, people have taken notice of Ogwumike’s impeccable style. A proud Nigerian-American, Ogwumike said that while she doesn’t exactly feel like she was born with the fashion eye, she was raised in an environment where clothing was always at the forefront. “I don't necessarily wear what is trendy, but I will say that I haven't been fearful of trying new things because fashion and expression through clothing is really huge in Nigeria,” she said. “I grew up seeing every shape, color, and texture [in] traditional Nigerian garb. [I got] a lot of inspiration from my aunties for sure because when you go to Nigerian functions, everyone is wearing what they call aso-ebí, or they're wearing caftans.”

When I asked which other WNBA player’s closet she’d like to raid, Ogwumike named her teammate Skylar Diggins without hesitation, noting that the point guard “really knows how to work with shapes.” Diamond DeShields and her “very unique, fashionable eye” also came up, but Ogwumike had to show love to an OG who she overlapped with for a year on the Sparks. “The first player that I recognized was doing something with fashion was Cappie Pondexter,” she said. “She was dressing up before anyone was doing it. What I love about fashion is that when people step out, that's how they view themselves today. I really like that they wanted to express themselves, or they felt like this is how they looked best! It gives you an insight on the self-love from different individuals and the self-expression.”

With her career winding down, Ogwumike is planting seeds for the next generation to blossom. When training camp began, she emphasized to the Storm’s new rookies—including French sensation Dominique Malonga, who has already rattled the rim at practice—that where they got picked in the draft doesn’t matter. The only number that matters, she believes, is 11 or 12. As in, are you one of the 11 or 12 players who actually made the roster? Beyond that, Ogwumike wants to make sure that her influence, and the game at large, extends to players outside the traditional American college system. She and Chiney—who have done extensive work with UNICEF to create basketball teams, provide scholarships, and give millions of girls in Nigeria access to top-level education—want to see the WNBA as populated with African players as the NBA. The Ogwumike sisters are just the second siblings in history to both be taken with the first overall pick in an American professional sports draft (alongside Peyton and Eli Manning), and they hope that putting the ball in the bucket is not the only thing they’re remembered for.

“Just showing that it's an option as a pastime really, or even as a passion, and making sure that young girls have the same opportunity that young boys do in Africa,” Ogwumike said of her overseas efforts. “That's something that my sister and I are very passionate about.”

Nneka (right) and Chiney after a Sparks win in 2022. Adam Pantozzi/Getty Images

The Storm begin their season on Friday with a desert duel against the Phoenix Mercury, a team Ogwumike has played 42 times, tied with the Minnesota Lynx for most in her career. Barring injury, Ogwumike is in line to play her 400th WNBA game on June 1, and whenever she plays her 17th game of the season, she’ll pass her old friend Parker on the all-time games played list. Milestones like that have never mattered much to Ogwumike, who mentioned an intentional desire to remain as present as possible for the duration of her career. Being an approachable and caring teammate, she said, is more important to her than racking up individual accomplishments.

Last year, as Ogwumike led the team in steals, three-point percentage, and player efficiency rating, the Storm enjoyed a strong season but were swept out of the first round of the playoffs. The league still undeniably runs through New York and Las Vegas, but the Storm have a veteran-laden, savvy roster that no team will be excited about playing. One thing should be apparent, though, to everyone who matches up with Nneka Ogwumike in 2025: She’s going to delight in every second of her time in Seattle.

“Seattle was always my favorite place to play away games,” Ogwumike said. “It has its own distinct character from the places that I've been in my past. It's definitely vibing with Nneka.”