Chiney Ogwumike took on a role as a Basketball Africa League (BAL) ambassador to help grow the women’s game in Africa, and after Jana El Alfy‘s championship win with UConn Huskies, she believes the NBA’s work on the continent is turning a corner.
Born and raised in a Nigerian household in Houston, Texas, former WNBA star power forward Ogwumike has been working with NBA Africa for 11 years, attending camps and clinics. She has sensed a palpable change for the better in the attitudes of girls on the continent to basketball.
There is no NBA Academy Africa for girls or women’s BAL yet. However, Egyptian center El Alfy was the 2022 Girls MVP for Basketball Without Borders Africa in Cairo – co-organised by the NBA Africa and FIBA Africa in collaboration with the Egyptian Basketball Federation. She also attended the NBA Global Academy in Australia.
Ogwumike told ESPN: “You have two national champions [from the NBA Africa programs]. Everyone is talking about Florida Gators [and former NBA Academy Africa and BAL player] Rueben Chinyelu, but now, people need to speak about Jana’s story and UConn.
“She’s someone that’s been an MVP at camp, someone that has developed under the Basketball Africa League, under the NBA Africa umbrella, Global Games, all of those types of competitions.
“To succeed at that level – to be able to find the right place in the States and then win at the highest levels – there’s no better testament to what the power of investment into girls and boys can do.”
Kaitlyn Chen finds Jana El Alfy in the paint with a fantastic pass for a UConn basket vs. South Carolina.
Promoting more talents like El Alfy was precisely Ogwumike’s motivation for taking on a role as the BAL’s first female ambassador.
BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall has regularly talked up the importance of expanding infrastructure and participation through programs such as BAL4Her before consideration can be given to a potential NBA-backed league on the continent.
Currently, FIBA organises Africa’s Women’s Basketball League, while they have entered into a partnership with NBA Africa for the BAL on the men’s side.
“Women, young girls – that’s my focus. Being a part of NBA Africa… for over 10 years, I have seen how the process goes. While it is necessary and great, it also tends to focus on young boys and men first just because that’s where the business is,” Ogwumike said.
“The NBA is [79] years old. The WNBA is just now about to be 30, so our timelines are different, but now, I feel like we have so many people – players, businesses, brands – that understand that women are actually at the center of change and opportunity and they’re the greatest ambassadors.
“So to be an ambassador for these young women that will be ambassadors not just for basketball, but for life – to me, that was the one piece that I could help push forward and accelerate – help put the girls at the forefront of what was happening on the continent with the Basketball Africa League, with NBA Africa.
“That is my number one priority. I used to come to camps and clinics – it was all boys. It was great, but it was all boys.
“Eventually, I started to see girls trickling in and a lot of those girls lacked confidence, because they’re like, ‘It’s already hard to be here. I’m having to compete with the boys, alongside the boys, but I’m also dealing with the stereotypes that people have that a girl who plays sports on the continent is not serious – a girl should not be playing basketball; she should be advancing her studies or helping at home.’
“We as women already do all of that, but why can’t we pursue our dreams as well? For me to be the first female ambassador, the goal is to make sure the women have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams in real time just as the boys.”
Ogwumike has seen firsthand how well-organized professional basketball in Africa can change players’ lives. Her cousin, Devine Eke, has excelled in the BAL with Rivers Hoopers and is coming back this year to play for ASC Ville de Dakar after stints in the NBA Summer League and G League.
Ogwumike said of Eke: “Sometimes, it’s hard to find a home when you are a professional playing basketball. When I heard about the BAL as it was being constructed, I knew that this was going to be a legitimate opportunity for professional players, knowing that we had the collaboration and partnership of the NBA to help build up the game.
“Last year, my cousin called me out of the blue and was like: ‘Hey; some guy is trying to get me in the BAL, but I don’t know.’ I was like: ‘Do it.’ He’s the type of guy that needs a lot of convincing because he’s played overseas. Sometimes, overseas, you have success, but then you have your heart broken because you have so many complications.
“He was kind of at a really tough point with him trying to figure out what was the next step for his professional career. I was like: ‘All of your dreams of making it to the NBA – being a really solid pro player – the BAL is going to be the best platform you have for it. You will shine; you will stand out.’
“After a couple of weeks, he was convinced. He went and that experience changed his whole life, because he was a star. He was surrounded by scouts, NBA evaluators – and more importantly – he was surrounded by his peers, his family, his colleagues.”
Now, her goal is to help build the BAL ecosystem to the point where it can provide similar opportunities for girls to her cousin’s life-changing opportunity.
“Anytime you talk about players of the continent, it’s always: ‘There’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Pascal Siakam, Victor Oladipo.’ The list goes on and on. I feel like people need to know – I’m a fan of my sister – the Nneka Ogwumikes, the Arike Ogunbowales, the Michaela Onyenweres and now the Jana El Alfys,” said Ogwumike.
“The names are coming for the women too and I think that’s the best version of motivation and success – when campers can say: ‘She was there. She was with me and now she’s succeeding.'”
With a new generation of women’s basketball players getting attention on a level that two-time WNBA All-Star Ogwumike never experienced in her own playing career, it is becoming increasingly feasible for women’s hoopers to focus on the game first and foremost as a sustainable source of income.
Ogwumike, meanwhile, could not count on making enough of a living from basketball to set her up for life. She majored in international relations at Stanford and began working at ESPN in 2017, initially co-anchoring SportsCenter across Africa.
In August 2020, she became the first Black woman to host a national radio show for the network – where she now serves as an in-studio analyst for NBA Today.
Although she may have been born in a generation of players which was not covered as much as the current one, Ogwumike has no regrets about the way her life has unfolded. In her view, her studies in international relations served as a springboard for her work as an analyst, and allows her to celebrate the growth of women’s basketball holistically without having to get her head down and focus on her own playing career.
“We did not think growing up as kids – me and my three sisters – that we were going to be professional athletes. We were taught – as Nigerians are supposed to be taught – to be scholars, to be great at school,” Ogwumike said.
“We were allowed to explore what our passion was academically. For me, I was student body president, student council president. I helped found the Civil Rights Club at my high school. I was always interested in world affairs.
“My favorite subject was history and I majored at Stanford in international relations, with my primary specialization being Africa and my secondary specialization being comparative international governance.
“I always knew that politics, government, history [and] international affairs was my passion because I was always curious and passionate about my heritage, my country and that kind of stuff… I always knew that if I didn’t play basketball, I’d be passionate about those things.
“[There was] no plan [to be involved at ESPN]. My dad would say he knew I was going to do something, because as a baby, I used to follow him around when I just started walking and before I even could speak, I was just babbling, babbling. He was like: ‘You love to talk.’ You know how they say it now – a professional yapper.”
Of her playing career’s obstacles, she added: “Injury was the biggest adversity for me. After my [WNBA] rookie season – a great rookie season; I was an All-Star – I go play in Italy and I get injured. Two years later, I go play in China and I get injured again.
“Being in Connecticut at that time, right in my backyard was ESPN. I had built a lot of good relationships as a top player. They were giving opportunities – more opportunities – to women’s voices. I started leaning into that just to stay engaged with sport, to talk about it, to celebrate it, and stay positive as I was going through those tough times.
“I was fearless going and subbing on First Take – Stephen A. [Smith’s] show – as a young person that people didn’t really know. I knew that there were not many people like me, so maybe, my perspective would be heard in a different way, and so it just took on a life of its own.
“I love it [that the top women’s basketball players get more attention now]. When I started playing basketball – I always say to my sisters – I never thought that we would experience the moment of rapid, exponential transformational growth.
“I thought that was going to be down the line [and that] I’d be one of those old ladies, watching basketball saying: ‘I used to play,’ and then maybe in 20 [to] 30 years, it would be like: ‘Oh; women’s basketball is being taken seriously.’
“I am experiencing it in my prime, but the thing that blows my mind is: it’s not like me experiencing it in my prime as a player. I’m doing it as an analyst, which is honestly – in my opinion – even better, because as a player, you are so focused on yourself – trying to be the greatest you can be [and] trying to get your singular team to win. As an analyst, I get to celebrate everyone.
“It’s given me so much joy to be able to see this as a young person, a voice; someone who has the opportunity to explain to people what women’s basketball truly is and how far we’ve come and how far we’ve come and how amazing this moment is.”