Nneka Ogwumike talks finances, WNBA growth, life after basketball
By Ben Dull
WNBA fans don’t need to be reminded that life can be demanding of their favorite players such as Nneka Ogwumike, Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray and Sylvia Fowles. We are in the midst of a thrilling WNBA Finals rematch between the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks. But soon enough, many of our favorite WNBA players will be jumping right into another season of overseas play.
Nneka Ogwumike sat down for a conversation with Maverick Carter for Uninterrupted’s latest episode of its “Kneading Dough” series, which just released as Ogwumike and the Sparks took a 2-1 series lead on the Lynx in the best-of-5 2017 WNBA Finals.
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Ogwumike and Carter covered many topics, including the moment at which Ogwumike realized she could be a professional basketball player and advice she would dish out to rookies.
“Once you start making more money, you shouldn’t get carried away,” Ogwumike said. “You’ve just got to be smart, but at the same time, I always tell people, ‘you can’t completely cut yourself off from things that you want. Here and there, you should treat yourself.’”
In addition to wisely managing her own money, Ogwumike has earned overwhelming respect from her peers. She is the current president of the WNBA Player’s Association.
Ogwumike took the time to highlight the accomplishments and intelligence of her fellow players. “I think that the beautiful thing about our league is that a majority of us have our degrees,” she said. “You have people that own franchises, their own businesses, some of the women in our league own hair lines, ice cream stores. They’re working in different companies – even in the NBA. You have a lot of very ambitious women in the league.”
Carter noted the fact that the current maximum salary for a WNBA player is about $110,000; NBA players signed for the minimum make at least five times that amount. To his surprise, Ogwumike confirmed for Carter that most WNBA stars do in fact make more money overseas than they do in the WNBA.
This latest episode of “Kneading Dough” featuring Ogwumike is the second in which Uninterrupted has featured the 2016 WNBA MVP. ‘Uninterrupted Presents: Nneka Ogwumike‘ dropped near the start of the 2017 WNBA regular season.
Chiney Ogwumike (Nneka’s sister) of the Connecticut Sun has also been featured across Uninterrupted’s social platforms, most recently in response to some of President Trump’s remarks:
Watch the entire episode of “Kneading Dough” with Nneka Ogwumike and Maverick Carter here.