How Nneka Ogwumike Is Using Her WNBA Platform to Empower and Inspire

On the set of her 2022 SI Swimsuit feature, the basketball star opened up about her role as president of the league’s Players Association and the legacy she wants to leave.

Nneka Ogwumike was photographed by Laretta Houston in St. Thomas. / Laretta Houston/Sports Illustrated

By the time Nneka Ogwumike traveled to St. Thomas for her SI Swimsuit debut in 2022, she was already a decade into her WNBA playing career. At that point, she had established herself as a force in the league—both on and off the court. At that point, it felt like a professional basketball career had been the only path that the Stanford alumna had ever considered.

But on the set of her 2022 photo shoot, she told the brand otherwise. In undergrad, she was playing well enough to pursue basketball professionally, but she still thought that maybe she’d land in a postbaccalaureate program, working toward an eventual medical degree. When she finally did come to terms with what would be her future (a really successful basketball career), she committed herself to creating “a legacy” for herself.

In the years since, that legacy has taken the form of her impressive contributions to her longtime team, the Los Angeles Sparks, and her current squad, the Seattle Storm. But it has likewise manifested in a long tenure as president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the players’s union dedicated to ensuring fair compensation and conditions for the league’s athletes.

Now, she knows her legacy is “definitely being a part of the WNBPA—being president at a time when these women changed the game for sports,” she said on set. Thanks, in part, to Ogwumike, the union signed a collective bargaining agreement with the league in 2020 that will go down as one of her proudest accomplishments. “It seemed that what we were able to negotiate really influenced women who are made to believe they are getting enough,” she remarked. “You just have to listen to people’s experience[s] and especially empower those who have not historically had the space to share their story and their experience.”

She has always aspired to be—and is—the president who can translate players’ messages into action. For all of those reasons and more, Ogwumike is the quintessential example of the kind of multifaceted and inspiring women that we are happy to welcome into the SI Swimsuit fold.

And in 2022, we did just that on the beaches of St. Thomas. For the photo shoot, which was captured by Laretta Houston, the athlete sported a series of black swimsuits and posed for over a dozen powerful shots. Below are just a few of our favorite photos from the day.

Nneka Ogwumike was photographed by Laretta Houston in St. Thomas. Swimsuit by Pursuit the Label. / Laretta Houston/Sports Illustrated

Nneka Ogwumike was photographed by Laretta Houston in St. Thomas. Swimsuit by Cover Swim. Necklaces by Eklexic. / Laretta Houston/Sports Illustrated

Nneka Ogwumike was photographed by Laretta Houston in St. Thomas. Swimsuit by Suki Cohen. / Laretta Houston/Sports Illustrated