The six-time All-Star and WNBPA President helped orchestrate a season in the pandemic, is ushering in social justice initiatives -- and will need to lead on the court.
Asked what it would mean to succeed in the “Wubble” — WNBA players’ term for their version of the NBA bubble — the Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike cited teammate Candace Parker, who said last week: “This season doesn’t have an asterisk next to it, it’s an exclamation point.”
“For me to walk away with anything, most importantly really just a championship, it’s gonna be extremely well-earned,” Ogwumike said. “This is going to be a season that no one will ever forget.”
The six-time All-Star forward is a big reason for that, of course.
As the president of the WNBPA, Ogwumike helped orchestrate a return to action — for a full season’s pay to every player participating — despite all the difficulties posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting this month, the 12-team league will play a 22-game season and a traditional playoffs entirely at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where Ogwumike is helping smooth the landing as WNBA players adjust to life in that Wubble, including addressing challenges that have sprung up involving food and lodging.
Ogwumike doing that while ushering in a variety of social justice initiatives that mean so much to her and her colleagues.
Oh, and there’s basketball too.
Ogwumike, the 2016 WNBA MVP, is a huge part of the Sparks’ prospects this abbreviated season, when they’ll play without All-Stars Kristi Toliver and Chiney Ogwumike, both of whom elected to skip the season because of injury concerns.
“(Nneka Ogwumike is) arguably the most valuable person, player … in the entire league,” said Sparks Coach Derek Fisher, who has an appreciation for Ogwumike’s workload, having served as the NBPA’s president from 2006-2013.
In a Zoom video conference Saturday with reporters after the team’s second practice, Ogwumike confessed she’s still striving to balance all of her ongoing duties.
“When we got into negotiations for the CBA, I experienced a certain level of responsibility that I learned quickly … what’s expected of the role,” Ogwumike said. “But then entering a negotiation that I did not anticipate was a pandemic. It’s been quite challenging, really, just because of what’s on everybody’s plate; it’s been a lot.
“I feel as though I need to make myself accessible to a lot of the players and, of course, staff, so that we can really address everyone’s concerns and do what we what we were geared to do in this bubble, what we’re so passionate about — both playing and also amplifying our voice. So it’s still kind of a work in progress, but I’m very grateful to be holding the role.”
The amplifying part is especially important for a women’s professional sports league, Ogwumike said. She noted that the league has plans to commemorate both the Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name movements on opening weekend, to start.
“Although we’re in a world right now where Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name is front and center, the Social Justice Council’s still very much involved in voting rights and registration and LGBTQ initiatives,” Ogwumike said, with a nod to a newly formed council on which the Sparks’ Tierra Ruffin-Pratt is serving.
Those conversations have extended well outside of the Wubble: Last week, the league’s support for Black Lives Matter drew protestation from Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler, the senator from Georgia who is up for re-election in November. She wrote a letter to the league to express her disappointment after she “read about efforts to insert a political platform into the league.”
Many players responded by saying that they wanted Loeffler removed from the WNBA.
Ogwumike said she couldn’t speak on behalf of the WNBPA, but that personally, she thinks Loeffler is misguided.
“All I have to say is, if someone believes that, and that’s not what the league stands for, then you can leave,” Ogwumike said. “You don’t have to stay.”
Added Ogwumike: “It’s interesting that Black Lives Matter is considered political, because it’s not. It’s a human rights issue. So to bring politics into a space where many people out there now are saying that we shouldn’t bring politics into the sport, it’s quite contradictory when we’re being brought into politics.”
As for whether or not Loeffler should go, that isn’t one of the issues she’s tasked with solving, Ogwumike said: “When it comes to where someone will or will not go, as far as ownership, that’s the WNBA question.”
.@WNBA dedicates 2020 season to social justice initiatives like the #BLM movement and #SayHerName campaign. @Layshiac + @Nnemkadi30 join us.
Watch NOW: https://t.co/U4UZMHn7bF pic.twitter.com/s6loNiOsWN
— NBC News NOW (@NBCNewsNow) July 7, 2020
