Nneka Ogwumike has called it a WNBA career after 15 seasons.
The Los Angeles Sparks star announced Wednesday that she will retire from the league at the end of the 2026 WNBA season. However, her basketball career is not completely over as she will still play for Project B, the new global basketball league that’s planning to debut in January, a league source told Front Office Sports.
Ogwumike, 36, ends her WNBA career as a one-time MVP, 11-time All-Star (tied for second-most in history), eight-time All-WNBA selection. She will finish fourth all-time in points and third in rebounds.
She also led the Sparks to a title in 2016.
“I feel very fulfilled with the 15 years that I’ve been able to play and compete at such a high level, and I’m proud to say that I’m retiring from the WNBA,” Ogwumike said in an interview with Boardroom.
Ogwumike spent the first 12 seasons of her career in Los Angeles after the franchise selected her with the No. 1 pick out of Stanford in 2012. She returned to Los Angeles this past offseason on a one-year, $950,000 deal after a two-year stint in Seattle.
Off the court, Ogwumike was known for her role as the president of the WNBA players’ union, a role she’s held since 2016.
Ogwumike steered the union through two collective bargaining agreement negotiations in 2020 and 2026. The deal agreed upon this past offseason has led to the average WNBA salary jumping to around $600,000—about five times more than last year—which Ogwumike has described as “transformational.”
In June, a month after the WNBA and union released the final, long-form CBA agreement, Ogwumike was re-elected for her fourth term as president. Each term runs for three years.
A union source tells FOS that Ogwumike will remain president until the next election, which will be held before the end of the year. All positions on the union’s executive committee are up for election except for first vice president, a role held by Napheesa Collier, who was elected in June.
In a statement to FOS, WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson called Ogwumike’s decade-long run as union president “extraordinary.”
“We are profoundly grateful for the countless ways Nneka has championed her teammates, strengthened this union, and helped shape its future. We celebrate her remarkable career and the next chapter ahead. Nneka’s legacy will forever be woven into the fabric of this union and women’s basketball,” Jackson said.
Not Yet Done
Ogwumike was one of the first players Project B announced last year, and each of the league’s players receives an equity stake.
Alana Beard, the league’s chief basketball officer who was also teammates with Ogwumike in the WNBA for eight seasons, applauded her WNBA retirement decision in a statement to FOS:
“Her impact will be felt far beyond what she accomplished on the court, and I couldn’t be more excited for what comes next,” Beard said.
Speaking at a Front Office Sports panel at the WNBA All-Star Weekend last month, Ogwumike spoke glowingly about her decision to join Project B, saying the league provides “premiere level of competition, execution and resourcing.” She also raved about the league giving ownership stake to its players.
“I’m very excited to be going over there and experiencing those things,” Ogwumike said. “But then, most especially, having ownership. Being able to say that I’m a partner in this. It’s something that women like we have here today, who before they had the resources or the autonomy granted to us, had been preaching that for us for so long.”
The Sparks (12–23) are on the brink of elimination with nine regular-season games left, trailing the Dallas Wings (20–16) by seven and a half games for the eighth and final playoff spot. The team’s final game of the season is Sept. 24 at home against the Golden State Valkyries.
WNBA Commissioner?
Despite the WNBA’s continuous growth, the future of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has been in question in recent months as the league has continued to be embroiled in a culture war.
Asked by Boardroom whether she’d like to be league commissioner, Ogwumike didn’t shut down the possibility.
“I don’t close doors,” Ogwumike said. “But I do appreciate a vacation.”
But she also admitted the role of the commissioner is not easy: “There is so much that I don’t know about and there is so much that I would have to learn before even, if an opportunity like that were to come, for me to be ready for that.”
Ogwumike sidestepped a question from FOS last month about whether she was open to Engelbert continuing as commissioner next season.
“It’s not on me to decide,” Ogwumike said ahead of WNBA All-Star weekend. “For players, when leadership is here, we rock with leadership. Cathy is here. I know there’s a lot of different conversations around the future of our leadership. But I told her that on Monday: This is who we got, this is what we all envision that we want us to be, and we’re going to rock with who we got.”
