Nneka Ogwumike’s WNBA legacy isn’t just her 11 All-Star nods. It’s a 364% pay raise for the players

Nneka Ogwumike is on Zoom from her hotel room in Boston, getting ready for one of the biggest moments of her career: in two days, she’ll announce her retirement from the WNBA.

“I feel good,” she says.

“I don’t know if excited is the right word, but I feel good.” Ogwumike, 36, was the league’s No.

1 draft pick in 2012 and is currently playing her 15th season.

While she may not be a household name outside basketball circles like some of the league’s younger stars are, she’s been a top player over the past decade-and-a-half: an 11-time all-star (the second-most in league history) and 2016 MVP and league champion with the Los Angeles Sparks.

She’s part of a pro basketball family; her sister Chiney Ogwumike also played for the Sparks and has become a successful ESPN broadcaster, and sisters Erica and Olivia played in college and went on to play for Nigeria internationally.

Her legacy, though, will be as much about what she accomplished off the court as on it.

In 2016, Ogwumike became president of the players’ union, known as the WNBPA.

She steered the union through securing a major collective-bargaining agreement in 2020 that included historic protections like parental leave.

This year, she had to do it again.

The WNBA experienced historic growth after the 2024 arrival of a generational rookie class including Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, but player compensation did not keep up.

Constant record-setting ticket sales and TV viewership were undermined by growing resentment among everyone from athletes to fans over the players’ salaries; Clark’s rookie pay was just $76,000.

It was Ogwumike who was tasked with turning that discontent into action.

As union president, she had to corral a membership that included everyone from veterans who spent years earning salaries in the five figures to 22-year-old NIL millionaires into a cohesive unit able to take on the WNBA (and NBA, which owns much of the WNBA).