Sparks: Why can’t Nneka Ogwumike get to FT line?
Things often haven’t gone the Sparks’ way this year.
Before the season, perennial All-Stars Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray left in free agency. Injuries to Nneka Ogwumike, Chiney Ogwumike and Kristi Toliver cost L.A.’s remaining stars a combined 39 games before they all returned were in action together again last weekend.
Jasmine Walker, the No. 7 overall draft pick, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her second game to wipe out her rookie season just as it was starting. The Sparks limped into the Olympic break with a record of 6-13. Then talented Russian center Maria Vadeeva informed L.A. that she wouldn’t join the Sparks after all in 2021, despite them having held a roster spot for her.
And how about calls? As the Sparks (10-14) see it, those haven’t gone their way, either.
Or not Nneka Ogwumike’s, specifically.
The Sparks are not hiding their frustration with the low number of freethrow attempts their best player is getting, eager to call foul on the fact that, in her five games back from injury, she’s attempted only five foul shots in 165 minutes of action.
In her 10 games overall, Ogwumike is averaging 2.0 free-throw attempts per game — a career-low for a reliable post player who has averaged 3.8 for her career. That’s despite playing 31.3 minutes per game, more than in all but two seasons of Ogwumike’s decade-long WNBA career.
So after the Sparks’ wonky 78-68 loss Tuesday in Washington, D.C., coach Derek Fisher kept it rated PG, but he kept it real, too, venting openly and unprompted.
“I’m still confused,” said Fisher, volunteering an explanation for why he received a technical foul during the loss, in which the Sparks trailed by as many as 37 points. “I have no idea why Nneka Ogwumike can’t get to the free-throw line — and I wanted to say a more aggressive word than that, but just in case my kids are watching or other kids are watching or listening, I won’t say it. It’s just disrespectful at this point.
“Like, five free throws in 170 minutes, almost, for a player of her caliber who plays as aggressively as she plays on the offensive end? That’s not happening to other good players around the league. It’s just not. So it’s just excuses at this point, that she can’t get there.
“It has nothing to do with us not playing defense (Tuesday),” Fisher added, seeming wary of making an excuse for the Mystics’ 56 first-half points. “But there’s no question that it impacts the way a game flows, when your best players can’t get to the freethrow line.”
Chiney Ogwumike said it’s been hard to watch her sister, who is also the WNBPA president, struggle to get to the line, noting that it’s difficult to separate feelings of disrespect that tied to Nneka’s omission from the U.S. Olympic team and how few foul calls she’s drawing.
“Everyone knows the context of what we’ve experienced over the course of the last few months and the summer, and to see that it in some ways carries over to the league that she literally gives her heart, soul, blood sweat and tears to, there has to be more respect out on her,” Chiney said.
“And I know I’m her sister, but that also means that I watch everything that she does, and it just is not fair, the positions she’s put in a lot of times. You see it on one end, how the game is being played, and on the other end, it’s our challenge to fight for that same type of intensity. It feels like a different ballgame at times ...
“She’s strong and she will look unbothered, but it’s not easy to be constantly put in that position and constantly feel like, ‘Dang, the world can at times be against you.’ But look, let me tell you: Big Sis? I have not met anyone stronger ... and we trust that good things will come when you do things the right way.
“Let’s just not wait forever for them, please.”