With the Tokyo Olympics a month away, folks are gearing up to see if the U.S. women’s basketball team wins its seventh straight gold medal. The Olympic roster features some of the most prominent players in the sport. Among the snubs from the team is former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike, who was averaging 16.4 points through five games for the Los Angeles Sparks this season before being sidelined with a knee injury. When asked about Ogwumike, who was expected to have recovered in time for the Olympics, U.S. coach Dawn Staley said the following:
“Breaks my heart that Nneka isn’t on this team. Having to make a decision today, if we had to make a decision a month from now I’m sure she’d be healthy. This was one of the things she wanted to do.”
That explanation wasn’t good enough for two-time WNBA champion and Notre Dame product Devereaux Peters. She was livid about Ogwumike being left off the roster for the third time in as many opportunities. In fact, she took to Twitter and unleashed quite a scathing rant about USA Basketball (Warning: Thread features NSFW language):
Okay so let's talk about bum ass USA Basketball….I'm going to preface this by saying I am happy for the players that made it and I have no issues with them whatsoever. They work their butts off for that opportunity and each of them deserves their moment…..
— Devereaux *casual fan* Peters (@MsPeters14) June 21, 2021
Peters was not even the closest person to Ogwumike to speak out about this. Sparks coach and general manager Derek Fisher made his feelings known, as did Ogwumike’s sister and teammate, Chiney:
✔️WNBA MVP & Champion in 2016 (last Olympic year)
✔️6x All-Star
✔️4x All-WNBA
✔️4x WNBA All-Defensive Team
✔️2x FIBA World Cup Gold Medalist
✔️ No. 1 pick & ROY
✔️Euroleague Champion
✔️WNBPA President
✔️oh, and she is one of few who went to every Team USA camp the last 5 years pic.twitter.com/iEzDduj4Kj— Chiney Ogwumike (@chiney) June 21, 2021
It’s nice to see an Irish alumnus stick up for players in her sport that she feels are getting duped. Even if you don’t agree with Peters using vulgar language to get her point across, you can’t deny that she’s a fighter. Especially these days, there never can be enough female sports figures afraid to speak their minds.