STANFORD, Calif. – Nneka Ogwumike and the Los Angeles Sparks will attempt to win the franchise's third WNBA title when the league's Finals begin at noon PT on Sunday in Minneapolis against the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. Game one of the 2016 WNBA Finals will be carried on ABC.
The Sparks haven't won it all since going back-to-back in 2001 and 2002 and will be making their first Finals trip since 2003. A Minnesota title would be the team's fourth in six seasons and match the Houston Comets for the most all-time.
If Los Angeles is able to win the best-of-five series, Ogwumike would add her name to a list of six Stanford alumnae that have won seven WNBA titles. Jeanette Pohlen's 2012 championship with the Indiana Fever is the most recent for the Cardinal. Candice Wiggins (Minnesota Lynx, 2011), Brooke Smith (Phoenix Mercury, 2009), Nicole Powell (Sacramento Monarchs, 2005), Olympia Scott (Phoenix Mercury, 2007; Sacramento Monarchs, 2005) and Sonja Henning (Houston Comets, 1999) have also won it all in the first 19-years of the league's existence.
Ogwumike, the 2016 WNBA MVP and member of the league's all-defensive first team, put together a staggering season in her fifth year as a pro to become the first Stanford women's basketball player to collect the WNBA's highest individual honor. A six-time Western Conference Player of the Week, Ogwumike concluded her regular season third in the league in scoring (19.7 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg) in leading the Sparks to a 26-8 overall record, a double-bye and the No. 2 seed in the WNBA Playoffs.
More impressively, Ogwumike finished 2016 as the most efficient shooter in the history of professional basketball. Her 66.5 field goal percentage is second all-time in WNBA single-season history to Tamika Raymond's 66.8 percent clip in 2003, but the 6-foot-2 forward also shot 16-of-26 from 3-point range (.615) and 146-of-168 from the line (.869).
Combined together, Ogwumike 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.
She hasn't let up in the playoffs either. In the Sparks' four playoffs games, Ogwumike is averaging 21.0 points on 60 percent shooting along with 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.7 blocks per game. Los Angeles eliminated the Chicago Sky, three games to one, to advance to its first WNBA Finals in 13 years.
A WNBA MVP hasn't also won a championship in the same season since Lauren Jackson did so with the Seattle Storm in 2010. Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury, 2009), Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks, 2001), Sheryl Swoops (Houston Comets, 2000) and Cynthia Cooper (Houston Comets, 1997 and 1998) are the other MVP's that also finished their season's with victories.