There is no doubt that 2024 has brought more visibility to the WNBA than ever before. Two big names have stood out in the melee – Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, rookies that were already big on the NCAA scene. But although they have burst onto the scene in style, WNBA icon Cynthia Cooper believes it’s another name that has also taken the sport by storm this year — Arike Ogunbowale.

After giving her flowers to the 2024 rookie class, the Hall of Famer mentioned the Wings star. “Arike playing against USA basketball and how she put on a show. That’s who the WNBA is, those are the players and the teams we should rally around and continue to pump them up and promote them,” the 61-year-old legend said in a recent conversation on the Come And Talk 2 Me podcast. Opening up on what she thought could bring in more eyes to the sport, Cooper believes that bringing in more talent is better than anything else the league can do right now.

Much like Clark and Reese, the Dallas Wings player comes from a successful NCAA career. Ogunbowale won the 2018 National Championship with Notre Dame, delivering back-to-back game-winning shots. Graduating in 2019, Dallas selected her as the fifth-overall pick in the WNBA draft. Two years later, she had her first All-Star Game MVP award, and three years later, she did it a second time, becoming the only W player to do so. No wonder Cooper is impressed.

“When you bring in players like Angel Reese, when you bring in players like Caitlin Clark…they are not just beautiful, they have a level of skill that takes them to another level in the WNBA. I think the WNBA needs to continue to do that,” the former coach previously mentioned. Interestingly, that contradicts the fact that Arike Ogunbowale has actually been on the scene for the last 6 years and is not new blood.

And yet, her explosive growth this season has not gone unnoticed. After posting 34 points, 6 assists and 2 steals for Team WNBA, Ogunbowale set a new WNBA All-Star Game record for points this year. But these points came only after half-time, before which the Wings player had not scored a single point.

The source of inspiration was Coach Cheryl Miller, who had some simple words of advice for her. “I wasn’t expecting her to say my name,” Ogunbowale told ESPN. “She just told me to take a deep breath and play my game. I guess you guys saw what happened.” Ogunbowale scored 21 points in the third quarter alone, another first for an All-Star Game quarter.

Team WNBA won the game 117-109 in front of 16,407 fans at Footprint Center. Reese and Clark were on the same team as Ogunbowale and certainly helped Team WNBA take the victory. And yet, while they have been neck-and-neck in the Rookie of the Year race, it was the shooting guard who stood out to Cynthia Cooper.

“I want to see the continuation of growth and stars play in the WNBA…Go be great, go be better than me…because now you’re giving the next generation a foot up, a hand up and you’re allowing them to dream of playing the sport they love,” the coach said on the podcast.

But while she defeated one Team USA in July, Ogunbowale did not want to step foot on another when they went to Paris this year.

“Everybody’s great in the WNBA,” says Arike Ogunbowale on withdrawing from Olympic team

Arike Ogunbowale had been in the pool for the Olympics twice in her career, but never made the team. 2024 has been a year of much spotlight on her, and maybe the Dallas Wings player could have made the team that went to Paris. But Ogunbowale had never been selected previously, and so she withdrew from the 2024 pool entirely.

“When it comes to (the Olympic trials), it really doesn’t have much to do with your game. It’s really about who they feel fits with the team … So I actually took my name out of the pool months ago,” she told The Athletic in June. It was before the All-Star Game brought more shine to her name. But Ogunbowale would not have cared to put her name in consideration.

“Whether that’s USA Basketball, whether that’s All-Star teams, whether that’s First Team, and stuff like that, there’s politics … Even with the men’s (basketball teams),” the Wings player continued. “There’s politics in everything, so I’m gonna just leave it at that.”

Had she participated, Arike Ogunbowale might have brought home her first gold medal with the rest of the team. But who knows, even after her brilliant display, she might not have gotten selected at all, as Ogunbowale believed.