free agent

Nneka Ogwumike is coming home in a strong endorsement of the Sparks’ vow to succeed during the upcoming season.

Ogwumike, a 10-time WNBA All-Star, spent the first 12 seasons of her career with the Sparks after she was drafted No. 1 overall by the franchise in 2012.

But Ogwumike left two seasons ago as the Sparks were struggling to win and signed with a Seattle Storm team with talent capable of pushing for a championship, a female coach and state-of-the-art facilities.

While she was gone, the Sparks replaced coach Curt Miller with Lynne Roberts, traded for All-Star guard Kelsey Plum and broke ground on a new practice facility in El Segundo.

Ogwumike posted a 45-second video on social media Friday morning that indicated her intention to return to the Sparks. Free agents are free to sign with new teams Saturday, when the Sparks are expected to officially announce her return.

“It was always ‘see you later,’ now I’ll see you soon,” Ogwumike wrote in the post.

She did not post any contract terms, and they have yet to be reported.

Chiney Ogwumike, an ESPN analyst, longtime Spark and Nneka’s sister, broke the news on X, posting: “10x WNBA All-Star and 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike intends to re-sign with the Los Angeles Sparks.

“She previously played 12 seasons in LA and ‘is looking forward to returning home.’”

The Sparks last made the playoffs in 2020, and while they showed some potential last year, going 21-23 but fizzling out in the second half of the season, adding the 35-year-old veteran bolsters their push to take a big step forward into the playoff mix.

Adding the appeal of some of the talent already on their roster and a new $150-million practice facility scheduled to open next year, the Sparks are positioning themselves for a return to their winning ways.

The Sparks are expected to trade 2024 first-round pick Rickea Jackson to Chicago this weekend for guard Ariel Atkins, according to reports. Atkins, who turns 30 in July, is a two-time All-Star and five-time all-defensive player who had an important role in the Washington Mystics’ 2019 championship.

Sparks players cheer as WNBA President Lisa Borders hands the championship trophy to team owner Magic Johnson in 2016. Nneka Ogwumike was on the team that won the Sparks’ most recent title.

(Hannah Foslien / Getty Images)

That leaves the Sparks with just three other players — Plum, who signed a core contract, Cameron Brink and Sania Feagin — under contract. The Sparks extended qualifying offers to Rae Burrell, Julie Vanloo and Alissa Pili this week, essentially retaining their rights.

But Ogwumike is the kind of player whom the Sparks could build a competitive campaign around, especially playing alongside Brink in a potent frontcourt. With Plum and likely Atkins in the fold, the Sparks could use an upgraded ball-handler, unless they go with Plum at point guard and focus on bringing in another forward.

Forward Azura Stevens announced on social media she is not returning. The Sparks also lost starting point guard Julie Allemand to Toronto in the expansion draft last week.

Forward Dearica Hamby remains unsigned. She started 84 games in the last two seasons and was an All-Star in 2024 but likely is behind Ogwumike and Brink on the Sparks’ depth chart and might push for a bigger role with another team.

The Sparks don’t have a first-round draft pick, so they will need to pursue talent on the robust free-agent market or make another trade to bolster their backcourt. If they elect to go with Plum at point guard, they could start Burrell as a small forward after her strong offseason in the Unrivaled three-on-three league, but they still need more depth.

During the next seven days, the Sparks will have a chance to make moves to support a veteran core of Ogwumike and Plum alongside a rising star in Brink as they push to build a team that can make the playoffs.

Last season in Seattle, Ogwumike averaged 18.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals. Her departure was somewhat expected after Noelle Quinn was fired as coach following the Storm’s first-round playoff exit.

The president of the players association, Ogwumike played an essential role in the historic collective bargaining agreement the league and players agreed to in March, which led to the salary cap being raised to $7 million per team.

Nneka Ogwumike, photographed in downtown Los Angeles in 2019, is returning to the Sparks after two seasons in Seattle.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

On Wednesday, speculation was rampant that Ogwumike might end up in Minnesota after a balloon company shared a video of a balloon sign that read: “Welcome Nneka,” but the forward clarified on Instagram that it was just a greeting welcoming her to a meeting with the Lynx, not an indication she was signing there.

With the majority of the league’s players free agents, teams have an opportunity to reinvent themselves this offseason. It seems likely that Seattle, with Skylar Diggins-Smith and Gabby Williams as free agents, could take a step back.

The forecast for expansion clubs Portland and Toronto, meanwhile, won’t take shape until they finish building their rosters.

The Sparks gave up the most points per game last season, 88.2, a flaw they hope to address with Ogwumike, the expected addition of Atkins and a full season of Brink, who has been limited by injuries to 34 games in her first two seasons after being drafted No. 2 in 2024.

The Sparks promised fans they would complete their rebuild and become title contenders again. Ogwumike’s return suggests she believes in the plan.

It’s the Dodgers, and everyone else, in the National League West this season.

The two-time defending World Series champions ponied up a combined $309 million to sign two free agents, world-class closer Edwin Díaz and four-time All-Star corner outfielder Kyle Tucker.

The second-place San Diego Padres continued to cut payroll, bidding farewell to free agents Dylan Cease, Robert Suarez, Luis Arraez and Ryan O’Hearn. The San Francisco Giants’ offseason highlight: becoming the first MLB team to make a college coach with no professional baseball coaching experience their manager. The 47-year-old Tony Vitello comes on board after coaching the Tennessee Volunteers for the past eight seasons.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are attempting to bounce back after following up a 2023 World Series appearance with two underwhelming seasons. And the Colorado Rockies are starting fresh yet again, replacing general manager Bill Schmidt with Paul DePodesta, who, after working for the Dodgers and other MLB teams, most recently served as the Cleveland Browns’ chief strategy officer for the past 10 years.

After 17 months, the WNBA has agreed to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement and players will be paid more than in any other professional American women’s sports league.

It is the latest in a trend of increasing equity for women athletes.

• In 2022, the U.S. women’s soccer team won a $24-million settlement with U.S. Soccer after players disputed making significantly less than the less successful men’s team.
• Then the Professional Women’s Hockey League was born in 2023 following many players defecting from the National Women’s Hockey League to form the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Assn., then merging with the Premier Hockey Federation until a historic bargaining agreement.
• The National Women’s Soccer League announced a new CBA in the summer of 2024 that included giving players agency on where they are traded and abolishing expansion and collegiate drafts.

That momentum put considerable pressure on WNBA negotiations. Could the players set a new benchmark for future contract negotiations across women’s pro sports leagues?

The Sky’s Angel Reese and the Fever’s Caitlin Clark shake hands before a game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 17.

(Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

The WNBA’s CBA was a flashpoint because of the boom in popularity in supporting women’s sports, with players such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese becoming household names. Last season, the WNBA made enough revenue to trigger revenue-sharing for the first time and this season marks the start the league’s new 11-year, $2.2-billion media rights deal.

Unlike in the NBA, where players get around 50% of the league’s revenue before expenses, the WNBA’s first revenue-sharing kicked in only after the league hit a benchmark determined by a formula of revenue targets, which had been difficult to achieve since the start of the deal was the 2020 COVID season played in front of empty stands.

The WNBA broke its single-season attendance record in 2025. As league interest grew, so did the tension between the league and the players’ union.

Many viewed this negotiating cycle as an opportunity to pounce on the increased visibility, and in a lot of ways, the union did. Players are going to be paid significantly more and they got a win in revenue sharing, earning 20% of the league’s revenue before expenses — a big jump from the previous 9% share.

The average player salary before revenue-share payments will be around $584,000.

But was it as much as they should have gotten?

Tamika Tremaglio, former NBPA executive director and advisor to the WNBPA during the 2020 CBA negotiations, said observers were less concerned about the start of training camps looming on April 19 and more focused on whether negotiations would end with a stable deal that would hold for the length of the agreement as market conditions evolve. Increased salaries are always celebrated, but both sides agreeing to a new revenue sharing model was a consequential step forward for players.

“The real story is the revenue share,” Tremaglio said. “At the end of the day, that’s what is going to drive the future.”

The fallout from the new deal will take months or years to fully understand. Free agents will be able to begin signing with teams in April, and since 80% of the players are eligible for free agency, there will be higher figures being floated around than ever.

A’ja Wilson and her Las Vegas Aces teammates celebrate while holding the 2025 WNBA championship trophy.

(Chris Coduto / Getty Images)

That might affect what talent comes to the league, too.

“More European players might come into the league,” a WNBA team consultant not authorized to speak about the league publicly told The Times. “Now that the money is better, that might knock out several college players in the draft.”

There are some WNBA-level players who have stayed in Europe due to restrictive prioritization rules that force players to participate in all WNBA practices and games even if they conflicted with international league obligations. Many WNBA players compete in international leagues during the offseason and prefer the option to keep playing in lucrative foreign leagues if there is an overlap with the WNBA season.

While the new rules for international play in the WNBA CBA are not yet clear, compensation changes could open the door for more players to choose to prioritize the league.

The general consensus among people operating within the WNBA is relief that a deal is in place.

“It’s huge,” one player agent told The Times. “They made big strides. This is important for women’s basketball.

Sparks players Dearica Hamby, Rickea Jackson, Azura Stevens, Kelsey Plum and Julie Allemand talk during a game against the New York Liberty at Crypto.com Arena on Aug. 12.

(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

“Anytime both sides don’t get everything they want,” the agent added, “that’s a good deal.”

That agent also noted that this CBA will set the precedent for the next negotiations to continue to raise the revenue-sharing if the league continues to make more money.

Under the new CBA, the 20% revenue-sharing is tied to the league’s gross revenue, a significantly different number than the net revenue, which is calculated after all expenses are taken into account. The players were fighting for a percentage of the gross revenue, even if it is a smaller percentage than the net revenue the league offered because it is guaranteed.

The NBA first reached 53% of gross revenue in their CBA in 1983 and has stayed around that number ever since.

“If it was net, you’d have all these other expenses and you sort of lose control of the actual expenses,” Tremaglio said. “You have no control from the perspective of where the players are. But now, you don’t even have to go look at the minutia of auditing every single expense line item. That’s what makes such a difference.”

More details around the CBA, including player housing, expansion draft format and roster spots, will become clearer as the deal reaches ratification.

For now, even if 20% revenue sharing is less than the 40% the players first proposed, the deal represents a significant, stable increase in player compensation.

“This will impact women’s sport globally, not just the game of basketball,” Tremaglio said. “This will impact everything, soccer, everything.”