Tag: Chiney Ogwumike

Aliyah Boston sees ‘the game in a different way’ as a studio analyst

Boston believes being an analyst for the Big Ten this season will enable her to see the game in a different way.

Indiana Fever forward-center Aliyah Boston will be a studio analyst for Big Ten women’s basketball coverage this season on Peacock. She was also announced as one of the members of the new cohort of WNBA marketing and promotional agreements, which will keep her stateside this offseason.

“I am super excited to be working with the Big Ten,” Boston said on NBC Sports. “I think the Big Ten as a whole is just a talented conference. Being a top athlete allows for me to be comfortable with this in the sense that I see the game in a different way versus just being on the outside looking in. I’ve been able to play against some of these girls. I’ve been playing basketball since I was 9 years old, so really just to be able to see what’s happening and be able to understand it like this, I think, is really going to help me.”

She joins other players with studio jobs, including Los Angeles Sparks players Chiney Ogwumike and Lexie Brown. Former No. 1 overall pick Rhyne Howard also recently announced an offseason job in collegiate basketball with her hire at the University of Florida as the assistant coach and director of player personnel. She will also be joining Boston as one of the players selected for the WNBA marketing and promotional agreements.

Players are starting to have more choices when it comes to staying stateside for the offseason or playing abroad. It was recently announced that Rutgers alum Kahleah Copper will also stay in the United States this offseason as the Director of Athletic Culture and Professional Development on the Scarlet Knights women’s basketball staff for the 2023-24 season.

Olympic gold medalist and two-time WNBA All-Star Ariel Atkins will be joining Michigan’s staff as the assistant coach for player development.

“I’m excited to be joining the Michigan staff, working next to Coach Arico, being on the other side of the ball and sharing my knowledge and experience with the players,” Atkins said.

Each season, players of the WNBA are provided more opportunities to earn income while also being able to rest their bodies in the offseason. Brands and organizations seem to finally understand the value and insight these players can bring off the court.

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Rockets proudly host NBA’s first Nigerian Heritage Night as Olajuwon, Udoka take part

Hakeem Olajuwon, Ime Udoka, and Chiney Ogwumike were part of Houston’s inaugural Nigerian Heritage Night, which was the first held by any NBA team.

When Julian Duncan joined the Rockets as chief marketing and strategy officer in July 2021, the native Houstonian had a vision of celebrating Nigeria and its communities during a regular-season game. The Houston metropolitan area is home to one of the largest Nigerian immigrants communities in the United States.

Two years of planning turned out to be well worth the wait for Duncan and his staff. Last Friday, the Rockets paid tribute to the Nigerian population in Houston and surrounding areas by hosting the team’s inaugural Nigerian Heritage Night at Toyota Center.

It was the first such tribute arranged by an NBA team. It was a massive success for fans in attendance and those individuals who joined a postgame Q&A session with icons such as Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon; Rockets head coach Ime Udoka; WNBA All-Star and ESPN personality Chiney Ogwumike; and award-winning recording artist Tobe Nwigwe. All are of Nigerian descent.

“Being in Houston, it is the city of innovation, but it is also a city with rich cultural heritage,” Duncan told Rockets Wire.

“We celebrate tons of different heritages here, but the one we had not touched bases with was the Nigerian heritage,” Duncan explained.

“It made the most sense when one, you have Hakeem Olajuwon in your city, and two, Houston is home to the largest population of Nigerians, bigger than any other city in the nation. It just made sense. So, two years in the making, we have a beautiful celebration of Nigerian culture and heritage here in Houston.”

Ogwumike, who grew up in the Houston area and became a national player of the year at Cy-Fair High School, was honored with the team’s ceremonial pregame “First Shot.” Naturally, she made it, earning $5,000 for charity from Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.

In subsequent comments, she said it meant a lot for her to participate in an event that celebrates her culture and represents her family.

“It meant the world to me,” Ogwumike told reporters after being formally honored by the organization as a hometown hero. “I am able to celebrate my culture here, the African diaspora, and the sports world, and how it has brought us all together.”

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2023 WNBA draft is April 10 and to be televised exclusively on ESPN

This year’s draft class is exceptionally talented with South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston leading the way.

The 2023 WNBA draft will be held on Monday, April 10. It will be exclusively televised on ESPN from 7-9 p.m. EST and available on the ESPN app.

According to the WNBA’s website, fans have multiple ways to get involved with the draft and follow along:

Launching in March, Draft Central on wnba.com will enable fans to access multiple offerings in the days leading up to the draft. Elements will include an interactive draft board; prospect profiles with insights powered by SAP; in-depth features on the top draft prospects; coverage of all draft events; and more.

Fans will also be able to access an array of content across WNBA channels that will include the unique stories and personalities of the prospects via Instagram and TikTok; a Twitter Spaces mock draft debate; cross platform live coverage including the Orange Carpet and more.

The draft consists of three rounds and 36 picks. The WNBA only has 144 roster spots, so the higher a player is picked the larger likelihood they will make a roster. Only a small percentage of players drafted make a WNBA roster.

The league is looking to expand in the next few years, but has no concrete plans for expanded rosters. Leagues such as Athletes Unlimited provide 44 more roster spots for elite basketball players to play domestically, but many opine it is still not enough to harness the sheer talent of women’s basketball players in the United States.

However, the top picks of the draft are almost guaranteed a spot. The last 10 No. 1 overall draft picks were:

2013: Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury

2014: Chiney Ogwumike, Connecticut Sun

2015: Jewell Loyd, Seattle Storm

2016: Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm

2017: Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces (formerly San Antonio Stars)

2018: A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces

2019: Jackie Young, Las Vegas Aces

2020: Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty

2021: Charli Collier, Dallas Wings

2022: Rhyne Howard, Atlanta Dream

The WNBA held its 22nd annual draft lottery on Nov. 11 to determine the order. The Indiana Fever received the first pick. The Minnesota Lynx have the second pick. The Atlanta Dream are third and the Washington Mystics (via Los Angeles Sparks) have the fourth pick.

The full lineup of picks for the first round is below:

Pick Team
1 Indiana Fever
2 Minnesota Lynx
3 Atlanta Dream
4 Washington Mystics (via Los Angeles)
5 Chicago Sky (via Phoenix)
6 New York Liberty
7 Indiana Fever (via Dallas)
8 Atlanta Dream (via Washington)
9 Seattle Storm
10 Connecticut Sun
11 Dallas Wings (via Chicago)
12 Minnesota Lynx (via Las Vegas)

This year’s draft class is exceptionally talented with South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston leading the way. She is projected to go No. 1 in the draft and when you look at her 2022 accomplishments, not to mention her whole career, it is hard to disagree.

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Notre Dame alumnus Devereaux Peters goes off on USA Basketball

A former Notre Dame player is not holding back on players getting snubbed from the Olympics.

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):

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:

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.