LOS ANGELES, CA – The USA Women’s Basketball team announced their final roster of who was going to compete in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics, and while the team was loaded with some of the best and most deserving players in the WNBA, there was one name noticeably missing: Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike.
If you didn’t know what the term “snub” means, Ogwumike not being selected for Team USA is as clear of a definition as it gets.
For anybody who follows the WNBA even on a part-time basis, this one is a head scratcher considering how accomplished Ogwumike is during her 10-year pro career. She was the 2016 league MVP, a WNBA champion, a six-time All-Star, a four-time member of the All-Defensive First Team, and made the All-WNBA First Team. Those are just some of her accomplishments on the court.
Ogwumike is also extremely visible off the court. She is the president of the WNBA Player’s Association, spoke out against numerous social injustice and political issues last summer, has appeared as a basketball analyst on ESPN, alongside LeBron James, Jay-Z, and others in an episode of the HBO series, “The Shop,” recently dawned the cover of SLAM Magazine, and even had a role in the film “Space Jam: A New Legacy” premiering next month.
Not to mention she went to Team USA minicamps the last five years and competed in the FIBA Women’s World Cup in 2014 and 2018, so it’s not like she’s new to this process, and yet here she is drawing the short end of the stick.
Ogwumike being left off the USA Women’s Basketball roster upset many close to her, especially her young sister and teammate Chiney Ogwumike who took to Twitter to vent her frustrations.
“Someone great is ALWAYS going to get snubbed from Team USA,” Chiney tweeted. “‘Bad timing.’ ‘Too much talent.’ With so many amazing players, it comes with the territory. But to be told to (1) wait your turn and (2) you are doing everything right – including leading Team USA in scoring last year and winning MVP of the most recent Olympic Qualifying Tournament – and (3) you are going above and beyond in pursuit of this dream…it just doesn’t feel right.”
Another teammate Amanda Zahui B. was also angered by Nneka not being selected by Team USA.
“It’s straight up b—–sh–t,” Zahui B. said. “Nneka is one of the best players in the world and one of the best leaders in the world…all I know is that Nneka is supposed to be on this team.”
Zahui B. didn’t stop there criticizing the selection committee.
“We got to stop letting people in power make emotional decisions. Whoever it is that sits in power, are holding on to grudges. I think it’s petty, I think it’s immature, and I think the decision is stupid,” Zahui B. continued.
Some, like Team USA basketball head coach Dawn Staley, believe her recent knee injury which has forced her to miss the past three weeks (original timeline is four to six weeks) might have played a factor in her not making the final cut.
“Breaks my heart that Nneka isn’t on this team,” Staley said. “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 theory is flawed on a few levels. Her recovery timeline would not have interfered with the actual dates of the Olympics, and Diana Taurasi, a women’s basketball legend and four-time gold medalist, is on the team and she’s still recovering from a broken sternum. Nobody seemed to question her availability did they?
Sparks head coach Derek Fisher was very upset at Ogwumike’s snub and also felt the injury excuse was non-sense.
“You can try and throw the injury out there if you want to, I’m calling BS on that too,” Fisher said. “The timeline doesn’t add up for her being unavailable to play in the Olympics so I don’t care what math you use, old math, new math, it doesn’t add up.”
“(She’s) one of the most efficient basketball players to ever touch the court,” Fisher continued. “To think about what Nneka has meant to this league, what she means to the league now, has accomplished, will continue to accomplish, and to think she might go through her career and never play for Team USA in the Olympics is a f—-in’ travesty.”
Ogwmuike’s former teammate, Candace Parker, a two-time gold medalist for Team USA, who also didn’t make the final roster, was angry Ogwumike didn’t make the team.
“You’re the only MVP not to make an Olympic team, which is b——t,” Parker said.
There are no clear answers why a player of Ogwumike’s caliber and somebody who is also of very high character wouldn’t be more valued by the USA Basketball Selection Committee.
However, one of the reasons could include one of the members, University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, who was the head coach of Team USA of the gold medal-winning teams in 2012 and 2016, and is currently serving as a special advisor.
It’s no coincidence that nearly half of the final roster played for him, like Taurasi, Sue Bird (to name a few) at UConn that played for him. While he may not be coaching, Auriemma’s influence clearly runs deep with this program which could be another way for him to get his Huskies band back together on a bigger stage.
If Auriemma and the rest of the Selection Committee are content setting up this UConn clique within Team USA like we’re looking for the cool kids’ table at a high school cafeteria, then that is short-sided. Worse than that, they are feeding these players and media bogus lies about “waiting your turn.”
This process of playing in the Olympics and representing your country should be a fair one, and shouldn’t be about where you played your college ball or who you know. It must be merit-based; otherwise, great players like Ogwumike who get snubbed will not feel it’s worth it to participate and the illustrious and prestigious USA Women’s Basketball program will plummet at some point.
