United States-based female basketball talent, Chiney Ogwumike has sealed a megabucks deal that will see her ranked among the highest paid sport stars-cum-broadcasters in God’s Own Country, megasportsarena.com reports.
This follows revelations of a fresh-as-hot contract with ESPN Network for the highly-rated USA Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Nigerian-born lass, who has already cut for herself several niches as a player/analyst, and she aims to achieve more.
The 28-year-old two-time WNBA All-Star and former No. 1 overall pick gets the broadcast breakthrough less than a week after she sealed a new contract with The Sparks ahead of the 2021 season.
That means she returns to The Sparks after opting out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic before which the Nigerian-born star, who has averaged 13.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game, was drafted by Connecticut Sun in 2014.
With Ogwumike back in the fold, The he Sparks offered an extension to her older sister, Nneka, who was a free agent and, having lost Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray and Riquna Williams, the coach/general manager, Derek Fisher ensured the siblings stayed beyond the off-season.
Although she did not play last season, Ogwumike kept busy in broadcasting, as she became the first black woman to co-host an ESPN national radio show and was supportive of #SayHerName, while also serving as a poll worker on Election Day in her hometown of Houston.
The Stanford University alumnus was the first woman picked in the 2014 WNBA draft, the 2014 WNBA Rookie of the Year, and after recently signing a multi-year contract with ESPN to become a full-time in-studio analyst, one of the youngest and few women of color to assume such a role.
The Sparks acquired Chiney from The Sun before the 2019 season in exchange for their 2020 first-round pick and, while many will marvel at the 28-year-old’s achievements, she says she had a good role model in her older sister, Nneka, though she is also already is blazing her own trail.
A report by yahoo sports revealed: “Chiney Ogwumike announced she has signed a multi-year contract with the Los Angeles Sparks, where she played the 2019 season. Ogwumike shared the news in a blog post opening up about the past year and how it’s impacted her family.
“The former No. 1 draft pick was traded to the Sparks from the Connecticut Sun ahead of the 2019 season to continue both basketball and a career at ESPN. She joined her sister, fellow No. 1 pick Nneka Ogwumike.
“Chiney Ogwumike opted out of the 2020 season, but said in her post ‘we are full steam ahead getting ready for training camp’ and is excited to pair up with Amanda Zahui B. She will remain with ESPN, where she hosts a radio show with Mike Golic Jr.
“Ogwumike became the first Black woman to co-host her own daily, national show on ESPN when it debuted in August. She is also working as an executive producer on an ESPN films documentary about the 2020 bubble season in Bradenton, Florida.”
Though she never expected to be an on-air analyst, after being sidelined by an injury, she turned a setback into a new career opportunity and, while recovering from the first blow, Ogwumike filled in on His and Hers.
On that show, she featured alongside Michael Smith and Jemele Hill at the time, and First Take, but she may not have been able o predict it would end up analyzing basketball for the premiere sports network in the country,
When she got injured again a year later, Ogwumike reached out to the network for a second time and they allowed her to serve as a analyst for about a dozen women’s college basketball games.
In addition to the 34-game WNBA season each the summer, Ogwumike is in the ESPN studios at 6 a.m. three to four days a week and, after that, she hits the gym four days a week to lift weights and then heads the hardwood to train for basketball.
Ogwumike, who starred for a while alongside her older sibling at Los Angeles Spark in the WNBA, recounted: “My big sis was a trailblazer herself. She was the first one in my family to be selected number one, and she’s been the WNBA MVP, so she set the bar incredibly high.
“As female athletes, we are inherently powerful women. And one thing that we have that is very unique is we’re very proud to use our voice, whether it’s in our community or trying to advocate for our game.
“I’ve found opportunities to use my voice, and share my voice, and also have fun talking hoops. I’ve had two major injuries in my career. As an athlete, I’ve always been a competitor so I wasn’t going to let these injuries hold me back.
“As I was rehabbing and coming back from these injuries, I got a great opportunity with ESPN. The WNBA is technically my part-time job. I will be working (as an analyst) for most of the NBA season.
“In the NBA they can’t do this because they’re hooping for most of the year. WNBA players play from May to September. So when people say, ‘How are you going to be a full time WNBA player and a full time NBA analyst?’ Well, technically those things only overlap for one month.
“As a young, female, Nigerian-American, who talks basketball and is very into girls empowerment, I work for SportsCenter Africa and I’m an NBA analyst–these are all part of my identity that I’m really passionate about. So I’m really blessed to do what I love.”
