STANFORD, Calif. – The WNBA's 22nd season tips off tonight and three Stanford alumnae represent the Cardinal on the opening-day rosters of the league's 12 franchises.
Four years removed from a superb career at Stanford, Chiney Ogwumike is back for her third season with the Connecticut Sun. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft and 2014 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Ogwumike has battled injuries since making the jump to the professional ranks. She missed the 2015 season recovering from knee surgery and was unable to play in 2017 following Achilles tendon surgery in November 2016.
In two years on the floor she has played in 64 games and averaged 14.0 points on 55.7 percent shooting and 7.6 rebounds. In her debut season in 2014 she led all rookies in rebounding (8.5 rpg) and double-doubles (13), ranked second in scoring (15.5 ppg), and third in steals (1.2 spg).
Two years later she was named The Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year after averaging 12.6 points on 58.7 percent shooting and 6.7 rebounds. She was the league's 12th leading scorer over the final 10 games of the season following the Olympic break, scoring 16.5 per outing and grabbing 8.6 rebounds.
Ogwumike, the vice president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association, recently reached a multi-year agreement to become a full-time, multi-platform commentator for ESPN. At just 26 years old, she is one of the youngest regular national sports studio analysts and one of the only full-time professional athletes to currently hold a regular national sports media position.
A four-time WNBA All-Star and 2016 WNBA MVP, older sister Nneka Ogwumike enters her seventh season with the Los Angeles Sparks. Ogwumike has started each of the 190 games in which she's played during her professional career and averaged 16.6 points on 56.3 percent shooting and 7.7 rebounds.
Last season she led the Sparks to their second straight WNBA Finals appearances, earned her third consecutive WNBA All-Defensive first team selection and her third All-WNBA accolade after scoring 18.8 points to go with 7.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.9 steals.
In 2016, the three-time Stanford All-American became just the third Cardinal to win a league most valuable player award in any sport, joining NFL quarterbacks John Brodie (San Francisco 49ers; 1970) and John Elway (Denver Broncos; 1987).
Ogwumike concluded her 2016 regular season third in the league in scoring (19.7 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg) and in the Sparks' nine playoff games, she averaged 17.9 points on 62.5 percent shooting along with 9.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.1 blocks per game.
She hit the game winner with 3.1 seconds left in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx to lift the Sparks to the franchise's first championship since 2002.
Ogwumike finished 2016 as the most efficient shooter in the history of professional basketball. She ended the year with a true shooting percentage of 73.7 percent, well clear of Candice Dupree's previous WNBA record of 69.97 percent in 2010. Tyson Chandler in 2011-12 (.7081) and Artis Gilmore in 1981-82 (.7024) are the only NBA players to finish a season with a true shooting percentage of more than 70 percent.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft and 2012 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Ogwumike serves as the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association.
Erica McCall, the 17th overall pick in 2017, returns for her second year with the Indiana Fever. In her rookie season, McCall played in 30 games and made one start, averaging 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds in just over 10 minutes.
Since the WNBA's inaugural season (1997), 28 former Stanford players have appeared in a regular-season game and seven players have won a combined eight WNBA championships.
