Basketball
Arike Ogunbowale: Past, Present, and Future
Arike Ogunbowale is the future of basketball because of past sacrifices. Now she is leveraging her game in the present to make history.
At 24-years-old, WNBA All-Star MVP Arike Ogunbowale has a resumé that most athletes twice her age would retire on. She’s won a national title, won five gold medals, set Wisconsin high school tournament records as a member of the Divine Savior Holy Angels High School basketball team that still stands, and earned the respect of Kobe Bryant by hitting two of the greatest shots in NCAA Final Four history as part of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish women’s basketball squad. And that was all before she turned 22. The prolific scorer then went on to outscore every WNBA player in a season in her second year in the league and beat out the best the WNBA has to offer to win the All-Star Game MVP.
Arike Ogunbowale
© Sean Berry/Red Bull Content Pool
To reach these heights, Ogunbowale dedicated nearly every second of her life to sports by making sacrifices as a child most people wouldn’t do as adults. “I was always in the gym and I always had a tournament, especially since I was playing soccer and basketball. I pretty much had a tournament every single weekend, so there wasn’t really a lot of sleepovers. I rarely partied in high school because I was in the gym a lot. I honestly wasn’t pressed to party anyway, so it was ok,” Ogunbowale said.
That mature resolve in one’s passion was hereditary and cultivated by a family that fully understood what it takes to excel in sports. Born on March 2, 1997, Ogunbowale grew up with her mother Yolanda Ogunbowale being an early representation of the dominance a woman can exhibit in sports. Some of Arike's earliest sports memories involve looking over the news articles about her mother blitzing batters with unhittable strikeouts as the star pitcher on the Harlem High School Huskies softball team. Between 1978-1980, Yolanda only lost three games, helped lead the team to an unthinkable 61-5 record over that span, including a perfect 25-0 season in her final year with the team, and brought home a state title. In college at DePaul University, Yolanda continued her torrid streak of success, including being named conference offensive MVP in 1985. “Her competitive nature and her drive rubbed off on me, and she definitely instilled those types of qualities in me,” Arike said.
For years, her father Gregory Ogunbowale was a principal at Washington High School of Information Technology in Milwaukee so a young Arike would be able to see firsthand the young basketball talent in Milwaukee, a city not historically known for the sport. She also saw what prevents Milwaukee from producing a plethora of basketball pros and why that would never be her fate. “I saw so many great players, but they didn’t want to do schoolwork. I’ve seen a lot of athletes who haven’t made it far in Milwaukee because they didn’t want to do the school part. Both of my parents are educators, so that was never going to happen to me. I was always on top of my schoolwork.”
Education has always been a top priority for Arike and Ogunbowale family
© Photo courtesy of Ogunbowale family
Sacrificing a traditional childhood doesn’t preclude Ogunbowale from being as fly as she wants to be. The precocious playmaker doubles as a veritable sneakerhead with a personal affinity for NIKE SB Dunks and the classic Air Jordan 1 sneakers. “I’ll buy every color of 1’s and Dunks, for real. I like low-tops for sure. I don’t know my favorite. I love them all honestly," Ogunbowale said with a chuckle. Her sneaker love runs deeper than outfits as one of her superstitions during college revolved around wearing the same sneaker for an entire season. She had to break in a pair of shoes for a week, so randomly picking up a pair of shoes and balling out was out of the question.
Arike gives us a sneak peek into her extensive sneaker collection
© Sean Berry/Red Bull Content Pool
Even though Ogunbowale has yet to visit Nigeria, her Nigerian heritage contributes heavily to the foundation of her basketball prowess. The determination needed to eschew a traditional childhood was passed down by her dad who came to America from Nigeria for a better education and survived on very little money as a taxi driver. She watched as her dad went from a school teacher to one of the highest-paid principals in Milwaukee to now working at the Milwaukee District office overseeing principal support at all Milwaukee schools. She saw the value of sacrifice by watching the lengths her dad would go to make a better life for his family, a common trait among Nigerians, including fellow Milwaukee sports legend and NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Young Arike and the Ogunbowale family
© Photo courtesy of Ogunbowale family
“A lot of that is family. I talk a lot about family and I know Giannis talks a lot about family and making our families proud. That’s always the front runner in my mind. Anything I do I do for my family,” Ogunbowale said. “I went to a Nigerian church, and I still do. I go to a Nigerian church whenever I’m in Milwaukee. Growing up, that was every Sunday. With the church, we always had picnics without my dad’s committee. So, I was around Nigerians every week.”
Motivated by her parents taking the hard way to achieve their dreams, Ogunbowale did the same, opting to train with boys rather than girls since she was little. Growing up with future NFL-playing brother and NBA-playing cousin, Ogunbowale conditioned herself to hold her own with them, sacrificing height and strength to them in order to sharpen her skills. She didn’t play with girls on an AAU team until the 5th grade and even during the early months of the pandemic, she worked out with high school and college guys. “If you can score against guys who are 6’7 and athletic, then you can play anywhere. I love playing with dudes, it makes me better.”
If you can score against guys who are 6’7 and athletic, then you can play anywhere. I love playing with dudes, it makes me better.
Arike trains with Melvin Sanders at Singing Hills Recreation Center
© Sean Berry/Red Bull Content Pool
Growing up in Milwaukee, there was no WNBA team so Ogunbowale got most of her interest in becoming a professional basketball player from attending Milwaukee Bucks games. She didn’t even attend a single WNBA game until she entered the league in the 2019 WNBA Draft when she was selected as the fifth overall pick in the draft. Her love for, and immersive exposure to the NBA is why the player she idolizes to this day is one of the greatest players of all time: Kobe Bryant.
When you see Ogunbowale on the court, you’re also seeing her biggest inspiration in action. Ever since she was young, she’s donned the jersey number 24 in honor of her idol. Whether it’s when she scored the most points in a Wisconsin high school tournament game, hitting an improbable buzzer beater to win Notre Dame Fighting Irish women’s team its second-ever national title, or scorching the best WNBA players en route to an All-Star Game MVP, she’s done so as a walking reminder of Bryant’s mamba mentality. She even admitted she tapped into that same mamba mentality when she hit the game-winning shot in an upset victory over collegiate powerhouse UConn Huskies in the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament semifinal game. A game that put her on the radar of her idol.
“I was walking off the court and didn’t see it until my teammate showed me the tweet and I was like, ‘Oh my God. That’s crazy.”
Game recognizes game and Ogunbowale is talented enough to get more than Byrant’s attention --- she also earned his guidance. The world saw their first meeting when the five-time NBA Champion surprised Ogunbowale on The Ellen Show with a few of his jerseys and praise for winning a national title on a game-winning shot --- a feat Bryant never came close to since he skipped college to enter the NBA in 1996. What the world didn’t see were their private interactions, including Ogunbowale being invited to watch Bryant record an episode of his ESPN+ series Detail. It was there Ogunbowale was able to see the man inside of the iconography.
“When we got there, I texted him and I assumed he had people working there he could send down to come get us. He came down three flights of stairs to get me, opened the door, and walked us up. That was really big.”
Ogunbowale was amazed by the breadth of Bryant’s basketball IQ as he meticulously broke down the game of Kyrie Irving in ways that elucidate the beautiful science of basketball. The taping was followed by a two-hour chat between the two scoring machines about topics seldom heard from the selectively social NBA legend. “He shared his feelings on controversies that were in the public, his mind. He shared different things he did when he was younger to get prepared for like, like saving money. We covered a lot of different topics. He was spilling like we were friends. That’s how cool he is.”
This bond transformed into a mentor/mentee relationship featuring Bryant’s well-known penchant for pushing the players he respected beyond their limits. When Ogunbowale became the first WNBA rookie in the 2019 season to score 35 points in a game, Bryant had a mission for her. “When I scored 35 the first time, he texted me: ‘You scored 35 once, you should do that every night.” After that text message, she became the first rookie in WNBA history to record multiple 35 point games in a single season. Ogunbowale cherishes those private messages from the man responsible for her playing how she does, especially the last message she remembers receiving from him before his untimely death on January 26, 2020.
“He sent me a video of his daughter’s AAU team playing against older girls and were basically working them. I was like, ‘Oh wow.’ I think that was the last text I can remember.”
Arike Ogunbowale
© Sean Berry/Red Bull Content Pool
Moving forward, after winning a scoring title and WNBA All-Star MVP in her second year as a pro, Ogunbowale is ready for her sacrifices to pay off in the immediate future with the playoff appearance that has alluded her so far in her career. And she’s already got her sights set on a championship, calling that a “middle-term goal” rather than long-term. But, when it’s all said and done she wants to “be one of the best guards to ever come through the game,” similar to her idol. But, her most lasting impact on the game of basketball could be the future stars she aims to help harness their own talents.
“I plan on doing a camp in Milwaukee. I know a lot of girls and boys love me. So, even if they’re not big on basketball, I’m sure they’ll come out. That’s going to be a thing. I want to show young women there is a place for you to make money and have fun in the sport. I try to also implement that into my game by making it fun for kids to watch so they can keep on that path.”
And that’s how her sacrifices today can help better someone’s tomorrow.
