How Chiney Ogwumike Went from All-Star Basketball Player to All-Star Broadcaster

Not that she’s any less busy these days. Ogwumike logged into our Zoom conversation on what she reckoned was her first day off since the NBA All-Star break in February. Ogwumike was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2019, and has remained in LA since. When the trade went down, Ogwumike was also reunited with her older sister, Nneka, for the first time since the two were teammates at Stanford. Chiney points to Nneka (herself an eight-time All-Star and 2016 WNBA MVP) as one of the biggest influences in her life. With Nneka having a year on her, big sis was also able to provide a bit of guidance when little sis made it to the WNBA and came face-to-face with an intimidating pillar of greatness.

“I was like, ‘Nneka, I’m going up against Diana Taurasi, tell me what I need to do,” Chiney recalls. “She said, ‘Chiney, the first thing she’s going to do is run up to you and punch you, and you need to withstand that punch. That’s it.’ I was going to set a screen. She was going to fight through the screen, and as she fought through the screen, guess what I did? I hit her first. Boom. [Later in the game] I walked to the free throw line, and I turn, and Diana’s smirking. She’s supposed to be in the backcourt, not on the free throw line. She said, F this. I’m coming to see this girl. I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ She turned and was like, “I see you, rook. I see you, rook.’ I was like, ‘Hey, Diana, I love you.’”

Though Taurasi, who turns 42 in June, is still playing, her generation—and the iteration of the WNBA that they built—is fading into the rearview. And as a new class of women’s basketball stars comes into focus, Ogwumike thinks the kids will be more than alright. “This is a class that’s truly gifted,” she says of the rookies. “First of all, the talent is so deep. This is also a class that has dealt with the most media exposure that we’ve ever seen in the history of our sport. They know what it’s like to have the spotlight and perform. We all know what Caitlin does. We all know what Angel [Reese] does. I think they’re going to soar.” One could say that Ogwumike and her generation flew so the Clarks and Reeses of the world could soar.

Whether it was making the All Pac-12 team each of her four years at Stanford, or becoming the first Black woman to host a national radio show for ESPN, Ogwumike has always been at the forefront of greatness. But that greatness, she explains, used to be shrouded in anonymity.

“When I started doing NBA analysis, people would say, ‘Oh, it’s Richard Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Malika Andrews, then that WNBA player.’ They didn’t say my name.” Now, she says, that’s changing. “Now, I’ll go places, and it’s like, ‘Oh, Chiney Ogwumike!’ I’m like, ‘Wow, look at how far we have come.’”