National Basketball Association (NBA) star, Erica Ogwumike, the youngest of the popular Ogwumike basketball sisters, has expressed her desire to represent Nigeria ahead of the United States, following the footsteps of her older sisters, Nneka and Chiney. Erica, 22, was recently selected as the 26th pick by the New York Liberty in the WNBA 2020 Draft and traded to the Minnesota Lynx.
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Excited about the possibility of suiting for the best Africa women’s basketball team, Erica, the only guard in a basketball forwards family (Nneka, Chiney, and Olivia), aims to work her way out of the shadows of her sisters while also drawing inspiration from them. Having booked a place already in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, the Nigerian national women’s basketball team, D’Tigress are the most dominant female basketball team in Africa after back-to-back FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Championship titles, something Erica, a Rice University graduate of Medicine would be proud to be part of.
I just want to compete. Whether that means making the team or not. I think it would be an awesome experience to just compete with the great women on the Nigerian national team. I’ve only competed for universities and organizations so I can only imagine the pride and energy that’s felt when you compete for an entire country. It would be amazing to experience.
Erica Ogwumike
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Born and raised in the United States, Erica hopes to toe the line of D’Tigress stars such as team captain, Adaora Elonu, FIBA Women’s AfroBasket MVP, Ezinne Kalu, Atonye Nyingifa and Sarah Ogoke, who were all born and raised in the US but competing internationally for Nigeria.
Yeah, of course there is commonality in how we all grew up and I think because of that I can relate to them for sure. I hope so at least.
Erica
Source:
FIBA
Featured Image Source: Rice University Athletics
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