Aug. 19, 2026Updated Aug. 20, 2026, 8:52 a.m. ET
This WNBA season will be the final one for Los Angeles Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, the 11-time All-Star announced she will retire at the end of the year, capping one of the greatest careers for any player in WNBA history. And that’s not hyperbole. Ogwumike’s off-court impact on women’s basketball cannot be overstated.
She oversaw two collective bargaining negotiations as president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association including the transformative one reached earlier this year that raised players’ salaries to new heights. But, on the court, Ogwumike was one of the most productive and consistent players across 15 seasons in the league. She was selected All-WNBA eight times and All-Defense seven times. Ogwumike won 2012 Rookie of the Year, 2016 MVP and was named one of the WNBA’s 25 Greatest Players of All-Time during its 25th anniversary season in 2021. The Sparks won a title in Ogwumike’s MVP season when she averaged 19.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game — both career-highs — and shot an astounding 66.5% from the floor.
One could make the case it’s the best single-season shooting performance ever, as Ogwumike is the only player in the history of the league to shoot north of 65% from the field while posting at least 19 points a game across at least 25 games in one season. But perhaps even more impressive? The player Ogwumike was night-in and night-out across the entirety of her career as she showcased an unmatched level of consistency. Here’s the list of players in WNBA history who — for a career spanning at least 400 games — averaged at least 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists per game while shooting better than 50% from the floor, 35% from 3-point land and 80% from the free-throw line:
Nneka Ogwumike That’s it. That’s the list. And Ogwumike’s numbers are actually a little bit better.
In 470 games — with a few more to go as the Sparks finish an overall underwhelming season — she has averaged 16.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 53.7% from the floor, 37.1% from behind the arc and 84% from the foul line. Even this season, at the age of 36, the Texas native is averaging 16.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. That’s the second-best single season assist figure of her career in a year in which she is also knocking down 1.4 3-pointers per game, the second-best number of her career. She’s ninth in the league in rebounding and 16th in player efficiency rating this season.
In 15 WNBA seasons, Ogwumike has never averaged less than 13.3 points and 4.8 rebounds. Both career-lows came in the asterisk-marked 2020 campaign when the WNBA season was shortened and played in isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ogwumike has never shot worse than 50% from the floor in a single season. The 6-foot-2 Stanford product ranks third all-time in total rebounds, fourth all-time in points, fifth all-time in steals and second all-time in win shares. No other player in the history of the league ranks in the top five all-time in all four statistics. While Ogwumike’s career didn’t have the highlights of Candace Parker’s, the moments of Diana Taurasi’s or the eye-popping scoring totals of A’ja Wilson’s, an argument could be made that she’s one of the best five players to ever step on a WNBA court. What’s inarguable is that she’ll be first-ballot Hall of Famer and her impact on the game will be everlasting — both off and on the court.
