Arike Ogunbowale has had a troublesome season, at the least by her requirements. The 28-year-old guard averaged 15.5 factors on 36.4% taking pictures — each profession lows. In truth, she posted nearly 7 factors lower than her common final season (she tallied 22.2 factors per sport in 2024).
And, at 9-32, the Wings have the WNBA’s worst file.
Nonetheless, on Tuesday, the Dallas Wings started campaigning for Ogunbowale to be named to the All-WNBA staff, an honor bestowed upon the league’s 10 greatest gamers after each season, as voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.
It’s typical for groups to marketing campaign for end-of-season accolades like All-WNBA, Defensive Participant of the 12 months, Most Invaluable Participant, and others, and oftentimes, groups rally behind considerably unlikely candidates for varied accolades.
This season, Ogunbowale was a very unlikely choice.
So, Ogunbowale turned to social media shortly after and joked that the Wings have been setting her up: “Right here I’m having fun with my off day and Dallas setting me up.”
As an alternative, Ogunbowale took the chance to marketing campaign for rookie teammate Paige Bueckers to be named to the All-WNBA staff (and Rookie of the 12 months).
In her first season as a professional, Bueckers has averaged 18.9 factors, 5.3 assists, and three.8 rebounds per sport, taking pictures 46.7% from the sector. Bueckers is a frontrunner for Rookie of the 12 months, although Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron has additionally had a robust and environment friendly season.
Whether or not Bueckers might be named to the All-WNBA staff stays to be seen — solely 10 gamers throughout the league are named to All-WNBA. She at present averages the Fifth-most factors and Seventh-most assists per sport, although the Wings have seen significantly much less success than the groups of different gamers with comparable numbers.
Ogunbowale is a three-time All-WNBA staff member; she was named to the First Staff as soon as (2020) and the Second Staff twice (2021, 2024).
However, regardless, it appears Ogunbowale might be out of the combo this yr — because the Wings deleted their submit campaigning for Ogunbowale to be named to the All-WNBA quickly after she posted her personal Tweet poking enjoyable on the marketing campaign.
