Nneka Ogwumike is coming home.
The former No. 1 overall pick of the Sparks, who helped lead the franchise to its third WNBA championship, is returning to Los Angeles, Ogwumike announced on social media Friday.
“It was always see you later, now I’ll see you soon …” the 35-year-old forward wrote in the post, along with videos of some of her highlights from her Sparks tenure.
The news was actually broken by younger sister Chiney Ogwumike, herself a former member of the Sparks and now an ESPN analyst.
After being taken first in the 2012 draft, Nneka Ogwumike played 12 seasons for the Sparks. The 6-foot-2 former Stanford star was a model of consistency with 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, making eight All-Star teams.
In 2016, she was named WNBA MVP after averaging 19.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game while shooting 52.5% from the field. In nine playoff games that season, she averaged 17.9 points, on 62.5% shooting, and 9.3 rebounds in capturing her first WNBA title.
After the Sparks went 17-23 in 2023 under first-year head coach Curt Miller and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season, Ogwumike opted to leave for the Seattle Storm via free agency.
In two All-Star seasons up north, Ogwumike posted averages of 17.6 points, shooting 51.5%, and 7.3 boards.
Ogwumike, who is president of the WNBA players union during a frenetic offseason in which she helped oversee a radically new collective bargaining agreement with the league, returns to a team that has not made the postseason since 2020.
The WNBA draft takes place Monday at 4 p.m. in New York City. The Sparks do not have a first-round pick after having traded it to Seattle in 2024 for the fourth overall pick, which they used to select forward Rickea Jackson.
The Sparks open the season May 10 against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces at Crypto.com Arena.
