Amidst Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird?s LeBron-Steph Like Supremacy, Candace Parker?s Ex-Teammate Relives ?Daunting? Memory

Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird are just as revered and admired in the world of women’s basketball as

LeBron James and Stephen Curry are in the NBA. Similar to their male counterparts, Taurasi and Bird have made an enduring impression on the game by redefining brilliance with their exceptional scoring skills, unshakable leadership and genius basketball IQ. They led their respective teams, the Phoenix Mercury and the Seattle Storm, to consistent WNBA championship contention during their prime years in the early 2000s and beyond.

Meanwhile, against this backdrop of outstanding basketball, a new player joined the league. And her initial years weren’t as pleasant as she hoped, deeming it to be

“daunting.” Recently, the player, a former teammate of Candace Parker, delved deeper into it in an interview.

Candace Parker?s ex-teammate reveals a “daunting” memory

Nneka Ogwumike’s career in the league got off to a fast start, being drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2012 WNBA Draft. It’s not surprising that she was the top pick in the WNBA draft given her remarkable statistics. She was a star performer at Stanford University which included an average of 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game during her final year.

Ogwumike, however, had an impact that went beyond the numbers. A born leader, Ogwumike has served as the WNBA Players Association President since taking over in 2016.

But Ogwumike’s initial years in the league were “daunting” as she entered a scene dominated by Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.

Nneka Ogwumike recently appeared on the Knuckleheads Podcast where she talked about her initial year in the league. “It was daunting, it was scary,” she revealed, “When I entered the league, it was so interesting, it was all about the West. Like everybody in the West could ki** you. And that was something that I understood very early on.”

The quality on the floor was simply astounding with women like Candace Dupree, Juana, DT (Diana Taurasi) and Penny Taylor on the Phoenix side. On the Seattle Storm, you had Sue Bird, Tina Thompson and Tanisha Wright. Every game felt like a fight for supremacy since the level of competitiveness was at its highest.

She said, “I’m just like …man, everywhere you turn there’s teams there’s somebody playing there’s somebody to beat. And that was kind of like my first intro.”

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Meanwhile, Nneka Ogwumike had already met Candace Parker before she got drafted.

Candace Parker met Nneka Ogwumike at the ESPY Awards in 2008

In the same interview, Nneka Ogwumike revealed an interesting anecdote about how she met Candace Parker at the ESPY Awards. Ogwumike remembered the moment vividly. She introduced herself to Candace Parker, who was still a prominent figure in Tennessee basketball at the time and expressed her pleasure of meeting her.

Fast forward to Nneka Ogwumike’s post-draft days, and she reached out to Candace Parker through social media. She said, “And I was like, ‘Hey Candace. I don’t know if you remember me.’ I had literally just got drafted. ‘But I met you at the Gatorade Player of the Year. I just wanted to say I’m excited to be in LA.’ She was like, ‘I know who you are.’ And so, I was like, ‘Okay cool I didn’t really know how to like greet you.'”

Moreover, Candace Parker also invited her and her sister Chinenye Ogwumike to Parker’s daughter, Laila’s birthday party. It was a special occasion for Ogwumike, with her being a family-oriented person. That was her first homely experience with Parker.

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