Earlier this year, the WNBA and its players agreed to a historic collective-bargaining agreement: a 364% raise for the league’s athletes, the largest in the history of pro sports. One key figure in that deal was Nneka Ogwumike, who has served as president of the players’ union (the WNBPA) for the past 10 years.
Yesterday, Ogwumike announced that she is retiring from the WNBA after 15 seasons. I was honored
to chat with her on Monday afternoon, as she was preparing for one of the most monumental days in her career. “I feel good,” she told me. “I don’t know if excited is the right word, but I feel good.”
Ogwumike is a prime example of how sports can prepare players for other leadership roles. In 2024, when I was reporting an
in-depth feature on the WNBA, she told me that she might want to work in the league office one day. Today, she’s not quite certain what will come next—and she’s humble about embarking on a completely new career. “I’m not assuming that it’s just going to be a role that is made available or that is given,” she says. “I don’t feel as though today I am completely qualified for any type of executive role.”
But anyone who watched the WNBA’s tense negotiations can easily see the skills the leader of its players’ union must have gained. Complex stakeholder management, maintaining a united front among players ranging from vets who had spent years earning five-figure salaries to 22-year-old NIL millionaires. Communication, high-stakes negotiation, and knowledge of the business of basketball. Ogwumike says she learned that one way to succeed as a leader is just to “provide an environment for everyone to share their thoughts.” “Everyone just has different lived experiences,” she says. And she became more adaptable, and slightly less type A.
My full story on Ogwumike and her retirement is
here. Over 15 seasons, she transformed women’s basketball–and left a legacy far beyond it.
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
