The Importance Of Chiney Ogwumike

It is easy to get lost in the many bridges Chiney Ogwumike is building, simply by existing — between men’s and women’s basketball by covering the men’s game on NBA Today as she continues her career in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks, for instance, or by serving as an example and advisor to other players who are broadcasting while still playing as well — and forget the fact that Chiney Ogwumike is a damn good basketball player.

She was not the 2014 top overall pick because of her career in broadcasting. She won the league’s Rookie of the Year award in 2014, made a pair of all star teams, and is a career 55 percent shooter from the field, an elite defensive rebounder and effective rim protector with expanded range to her shot by the season.

That versatility is key for her on-court team, the Sparks, who need her to fill multiple roles alongside her sister, Nneka, and Liz Cambage in the Los Angeles frontcourt.

“We believe that we can do whatever the game requires,” Sparks coach Derek Fisher said of Ogwumike. “Her defensive rebounding has always been elite, and we’re better with her on the floor at that end. Offensively, Chiney is a better perimeter shooter, a catch-and-shoot player, than most people think.”

The team’s decision to keep Ogwumike, clearly, is rooted in basketball. But there is an understanding from the team and Chiney alike that Ogwumike has another team, too, as she put it. There is her NBA Today team, a program she’ll continue to appear on during the WNBA season. There is the Emmy-nominated 144, which Ogwumike made happen. She’s executive producer, but consider the broader scope here — it wasn’t on the ESPN slate to be made, but having an ESPN employee in Ogwumike, who was also playing in the bubble in 2020, meant both the chance to see the possibility of great storytelling, and a vital mind to help bring it to fruition.

There’s just so much more than basketball at stake when the trajectory of Chiney Ogwumike is considered. It’s not something she’s spent a lot of time considering — after all, when you have multiple full-time jobs, there isn’t much time for reflection. Even the notorious TV addict has a stack of shows that are piling up as she navigates the dual life of a television star and basketball player.

But during a lengthy phone interview shortly before Ogwumike’s on-court basketball season begins on May 6, she took a moment to explain what the goal of this all is for not only her, but the spaces she inhabits at large.

“For me, it was work twice as hard to get maybe half the recognition to have a seat at the table,” Ogwumike said. “I would like women to already get that nod. You know what I mean? Not have to fight for what they rightfully deserve. If you’ve got game, you’ve got game, if you’ve got a voice, you’ve got a voice, if you understand things, you should be able to have the opportunity there. And I think what we’ve seen is succeeding in your own space, you’re changing the paradigm.”

That paradigm change is recognized by her fellow players. Kia Nurse reached out to discuss broadcasting ahead of a successful turn on TSN Raptors broadcasts this past NBA season, and Angel McCoughtry did as well, coming to Ogwumike at Liz Cambage’s 30th birthday party to get tips.

“I was like, I got you,” Ogwumike recalled. “Have your notes. Be prepared, know the topics. And it’s okay to say less than to say more. Hit what you want to hit. And then you know, be done. And then just make sure you just have fun. And I always tell people take a deep breath.”

Ogwumike noted how with players like Nurse, McCoughtry, even Skylar Diggins-Smith on Phoenix Suns broadcasts, this is becoming “the new normal” in Ogwumike’s eyes. And there is an amplifying effect here for the women’s game as well. Ogwumike has fans come up to her all the time, telling her they love her on NBA Today, and that they follow the Sparks now because of this.

Take a moment with that. This is a paradigm shift. We’re not seeing the WNBA attempt to be affirmed by men. This is a WNBA player going into homes, talking about the NBA, and then bringing those fans back with her to the WNBA.

As she enters the final year of her contract at ESPN, then, there is a value she provides to the network that transcends what any other hire can bring. Her joy, her passion, her expertise makes her a huge part of what makes NBA Today such a successful television show. But she is the embodiment of the collective that is basketball, men and women, a player in the league that works hard to get more time, more representation on the network as well.

So when the WNBA television schedule came out, and was first released on NBA Today, it wasn’t just a matter of hosts touching on it and moving on. She could speak to which teams were getting the most national games, what the rivalries were, how it affected her as a player, all in one.

We saw this again a few weeks ago when she spoke about the WNBA Draft.

As you can imagine, doing this to the level Ogwumike demands of herself requires an almost unfathomable level of work.

“Some of my workouts will be at 4 AM,” Ogwumike said. The gym in West Hollywood specializes in CrossFit, so she is doing her strength work among folks doing Olympic lifts, back bends. “And I’m here, prepping for my basketball movements in a gym like that.”

Ogwumike and her agent Allison Galer of Disrupt The Game, had to reinvent the offseason workout to adhere to Ogwumike’s television schedule as well. With the assistance of UCLA head coach Cori Close — part of “my Pac-12 family”, the Stanford-educated Ogwumike said — the UCLA gym opened early, 6:30 AM, for her, and a succession of specialists — physical therapist, osteopath, you name it — lined up by Galer came in to work with Ogwumike. All of it had to be done in time for Ogwumike to get to the studio, go through full hair and makeup, and record the show.

She’s still getting used to the larger fame — rushing from one obligation to another, she gets her fans telling her how much she means to them. WNBA fame and NBA television fame were two different things for so long. Now Ogwumike embodies them both at once, and reaps the collective understanding that comes along with it.

“What I do is taxing,” Ogwumike said. “To wake up early to work out, then go and break down the game on television, it’s like, two different stresses, right? I get so much caught in game mode, that I don’t get to enjoy the view.”

So it is left to others to fully explain what she means. Fisher, her head coach, already knows he’s going to need an open line of communication with Ogwumike about how to schedule. The on-court stakes are huge for the Sparks, who need to show improvement in 2022, and for Ogwumike, in the final year of her WNBA deal, too. But there’s no problem, in his eyes, with a different set of rules here. What Chiney Ogwumike does matters, in ways that help the Sparks on the court today, but also for their bottom line and larger project for many years to come.

“In terms of what she represents: in terms of an extension of what she does on the court, I think in terms of the WNBA, it’s vital,” Fisher said. “That someone continues to show young girls of color all around the world, and women in general, that it is possible to do what you love to do, and also have something else to do, another passion, that you maintain and nurture. It’s almost an extension of self-care. Too often we put women in a position where — they can be a great mom, but they cant be a great executive… and we thing Chiney represents the possibility that you don’t have to choose.”

Ogwumike said she’s even figured out how to find some of that self-care beyond her two jobs: she’s got a life with friends now, she said, dinners, ordering in usually and watching some television.

“I still need to work on my meditation and stuff,” Ogwumike said with a laugh, “because your girl is an over-thinker.”

But when she gets out on the court, as she will Friday night in Chicago against the Sky, she said her mind relaxes. It’s left to the rest of us at that point, then, to consider what everything Chiney Ogwumike does means, and will reverberate in the years to come.