Ogwumike says she's planning to expand her game this season

Chiney Ogwumike wants to reclaim her WNBA career with the Sparks by remaining an efficient inside player while at the same time expanding her game to become a consistent 3-point shooting threat.

“Based on where the team is going, knowing Curt’s style, I know he loves production in the paint, but I think he also understands that the game is fast and we have to spread the floor too,” Ogwumike said of new Sparks head coach Curt Miller. “I think all of those hard growing pains for me personally and professionally have set me up to feel free and be able to be my best self now.”

“I plan to expand my game. I know you have to take shots to learn how to make them and I think I’ll be more comfortable taking more than 18 3s (in a season)

LOS ANGELES >> because I know that’s what’s best for me. I’m cool with that and I’m confident with that.”

Although it was a small sample size, Ogwumike made 8 of 18 3-point attempts, averaging 44.4%. That’s something Miller, for whom she played for between 2016-2018 in Connecticut, wants her to do more of, especially since she never attempted or made a 3-point shot in a game until her third season in the league.

“Chiney is modest, but she really has developed that part of her game and she was happy to share that,” Miller said. “Every time we saw each other (last season), I think it was the first conversation she had with me and it could be sometimes when she was checking into the game ... she would whisper, ‘Coach, I’m shooting 3s now. Curt, I’m shooting 3s, how about my 3-point game?’

“She’s worked really hard and that’s the one narrative that I want to make sure people understand is that Chiney works. That’s the narrative that needs to be out there. She’s a really hard worker and she has evolved her game.”

That’s why the 6-foot-3 forward, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun, wakes up every day at 5:30 a.m. in Los Angeles to balance her dual passions as a professional basketball player preparing for the upcoming season and a co-host on ESPN’S “NBA Today” and full-time analyst on “NBA Countdown.”

By morning, Ogwumike, who re-signed with the Sparks on Tuesday, said she’s awake doing various physical activities to work on expanding her game and flexibility by way of hot yoga. The two-time All-star initially made her mark as one of the league’s most promising post players out of Stanford University.

Her career started strong, dropping 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game and being named an All-star and Rookie of the Year. Then injuries struck. She missed the 2015 season rehabilitating from microfracture surgery on her right knee. She was named the AP Comeback Player of the Year in 2016. She then missed the 2017 season to recover from an Achilles tendon injury she suffered while playing in China during the offseason.

“When you’re going through those situations, you do lose your confidence. And it’s crazy for me because I’m one of the most confident human beings on the planet, but when things are happening and they’re not going according to how you would want or you feel like you’re not fulfilling your potential, it’s hard to balance,” Ogwumike said.

In 2018, she re-emerged to make her second All-star team. She averaged 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds and shot a career-high 60.3% from the field. But by that time, her budding broadcasting career took off and her trade to the Sparks would reunite her with older sister, 2016 WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike, and fast-track her transition to what has now become a full-time role with ESPN based in L.A., with a recently signed contract extension.

However, since she joined the Sparks in 2019, the league has evolved. Executives and coaches still value inside scoring, but it has become a necessity that players like Ogwumike also be able to space the floor and knock down open 3-pointers.

“I think every player that grows older ends up having to evolve their game,” Ogwumike said. “Lebron James shoots way more threes than he did when he came into the league. He dunks the ball way less, not saying you’re not who you are but it forces the evolution.”