Nneka Ogwumike’s return to the Sparks this season, it turned out, was a goodbye tour.
The 15-year WNBA veteran announced on Wednesday morning that this would be her last WNBA season.
She made the announcement in an interview with Taylor Rooks at Boardroom Talks.
“I feel very fulfilled with the 15 years that I’ve been able to play and compete at such a high level and I am proud to say that I’m retiring from the WNBA,” Ogwumike said.
Drafted first overall in 2012, Ogwumike won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and went on to have one of the best careers in league history. She was the league’s MVP in 2016, when she led the Sparks to their most recent WNBA title. She is also a four-time first-team All-Defensive player.
In her return to the Sparks this season, Ogwumike set the Sparks’ all-time scoring record and was named to her 11th WNBA All-Star Game, where she also became that event’s leading scorer.
She is the active WNBA leader in career field goals (3,098), rebounds (3,565) and steals (707).
“There is no telling the story of the WNBA’s recent growth and evolution without Nneka Ogwumike,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “Her extraordinary career has been defined not only by excellence, but by the way she has led and lifted those around her.”
Ogwumike, a future Hall of Famer, was the Sparks’ free-agent splash this offseason after she spent her last two seasons in Seattle. She returned to the organization that drafted her intending to help them get back to the postseason.
Instead, the Sparks (12-23) have struggled this season, fired general manager Raegan Pebley midway through the season and traded star Kelsey Plum to Phoenix at the trade deadline earlier this month.
Ogwumike has played 31.3 minutes per game for the Sparks this season while averaging 16.9 points and 8.7 rebounds, her most since 2023.
“I’ve learned there’s power in knowing when to walk away,” Ogwumike told Boardroom Talks. “For so long, that strength meant finding a way to keep pushing; now, it means recognizing when you feel complete. I find myself grateful, fulfilled and at peace with everything this game has given me and everything that I’ve poured into it.”
Ogwumike also serves as the president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Assn., where she helped spearhead a transformative collective bargaining agreement this offseason that brought some player salaries over $1 million for the first time.
She signed a one-year, $950,000 deal to return to the Sparks in the offseason.
