Basketball
Arike Ogunbowale: Top career moments
Read ahead for the top Arike Ogunbowale career moments to find out how she became one of the best in the game.
WNBA star Arike Ogunbowale has one goal when she’s on the court.
“My job is to score,” she tells Red Bull.
Arike Ogunbowale
© Sean Berry
When you look at Ogunbowale’s history of epic wins, it’s clear she takes this job very seriously. From her time as a top NCAA player to her current role as Dallas Wings point guard, Ogunbowale’s work ethic keeps leading her to victory.
01
Early life and introduction to basketball
The Ogunbowale family of athletes
Ogunbowale has loved basketball since she was 3 years old. At this young age, she would spend lots of time playing with her first toy mini-basketball hoop in her Milwaukee childhood home.
Young Arike and the Ogunbowale family
© Photo courtesy of Ogunbowale family
Athletics have always played a big role in the Ogunbowale family. Her mother, Yolanda Ogunbowale, was a star softball player in high school and college. Her older brother, Dare Ogunbowale, is an NFL running back with tenure on teams such as the Houston Texans. She clearly inherited her family’s sense of competition — in particular, as she tells Red Bull, her mother’s.
“Her competitive nature and her drive rubbed off on me, and she definitely instilled those types of qualities in me,” she says.
Ogunbowale’s high school years
Ogunbowale’s drive was clear throughout her high school years, which she spent training relentlessly. She tells Red Bull that most of her free time was spent either on the basketball court or soccer field, her first favorite sport.
“I was always in the gym and I always had a tournament, especially since I was playing soccer and basketball,” she says. “I pretty much had a tournament every single weekend, so there wasn’t really a lot of sleepovers.”
Her efforts paid off with big wins and the first honors of her basketball legacy. She was named Gatorade Wisconsin High School Player of the Year for three consecutive years while on the Divine Savior Holy Angels High School team. In 2015, she was crowned McDonald’s High School All-American and Wisconsin Miss Basketball. She also set a Wisconsin state record for most points made in a high school basketball tournament game. Namely, she scored a whopping 55 points in the Division 1 semifinal.
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College career at Notre Dame
Education has always been a top priority for Arike and Ogunbowale family
© Photo courtesy of Ogunbowale family
Ogunbowale went on to play for Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish basketball team. By the time she graduated, she had scored 2,626 total career points, making her the highest all-time leading scorer in Notre Dame history. She won 127 of those games with double-digit point totals, also a Notre Dame record. She’s also made the most field goals out of any Fighting Irish player — 954, to be exact.
Ogunbowale’s record-smashing performances have left an impact on women’s college basketball that can't be overstated. (Plus, she managed to set all her records while sneaking in a stint on the 26th season of Dancing with the Stars.) Although it’s hard to pick just one highlight from her college career, one competition does stand out as her big shining moment.
Iconic game-winning shots: The 2018 NCAA Women's Final Four
The Fighting Irish finished the 2018 season in the NCAA Final Four, where they faced the University of Connecticut Huskies in the semifinals. Ogunbowale’s performance proved that the game truly isn’t over until the clock runs all the way out. With the score tied 89-89 and less than three seconds left, the basketball phenomenon made the winning shot.
Ogunbowale would prove she could indeed strike lightning twice on the court when it was time for the finals. In the Fighting Irish’s final moments against the Mississippi State University Bulldogs, the score was once again tied with just three seconds remaining. Ogunbowale landed a three-point buzzer beater, and Notre Dame became the National Championship winners.
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WNBA career
Draft and rookie season
In 2019, Ogunbowale was drafted to the WNBA to play for the Dallas Wings. Since Ogunbowale’s native Milwaukee doesn’t have a WNBA team, her first Wings game was the first WNBA game she ever went to.
It was quickly obvious that the Wings had drafted the right player. Ogunbowale would end the season with a spot on the WNBA All-Rookie Team and even more records, including first-ever rookie to play multiple 35-point games. She also scored the most points of any Wings player that year, ranking her as third overall scorer in the league. The cherry on top was that she scored the third most points by a WNBA rookie in history.
WNBA career milestones
Unsurprisingly, Ogunbowale dominated her next WNBA season in 2020, during which she scored an average of 22.8 points per game. By the season’s end, she was the top scorer in the WNBA and one of the youngest players to ever earn that title. She followed that up as a WNBA All-Star three years in a row, including an All-Star MVP title in 2021.
Ogunbowale continues to see how far she can push her point average. In the weeks before she received the WNBA’s Western Conference Player of the Month award in 2023, she was averaging 26.7 points per game. This year, she led the Wings to their first playoff series win in franchise history.
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Off-season and off-court ventures
International career
Like many of her WNBA colleagues, she has played overseas to make up for the salary gap unfortunately present in most professional women's sports leagues.
One of her best games with Dynamo Kursk happened in 2021 — she scored 22 points in an 80-70 victory. The win was against the Galatasaray S.K. basketball team from Turkey, which is Ogunbowale’s favorite place to play abroad. She tells Red Bull she’s grateful for the chance to see the world with her EuroLeague team.
“It just broadens your eyes and lets you appreciate the world and everybody that’s in it,” she says.
Off the court: fashion and philanthropy
Arike gives us a sneak peek into her extensive sneaker collection
© Sean Berry/Red Bull Content Pool
When she’s not scoring point after point, Ogunbowale is expressing her creative side with her style. She’s got an affinity for streetwear and this past season, she had a player edition sneaker release that was inspired by her hometown of Milwaukee.. She enlisted the help of a stylist in 2023 to take her fits to new heights for the NBA All-Star Weekend. Her chosen fashion guide was former WNBA point guard Chloe Jackson, whom Ogunbowale played against in college when Jackson was on the Baylor Bears. She explained to the WNBA why Jackson was the perfect collaborator.
“Since Chloe played in the WNBA, she already knows what type of venues you go to and (thus) knows what to put on for each occasion,” she says.
Among Ogunbowale’s other activities outside basketball are philanthropic projects for the Special Olympics and the Ronald McDonald House. In 2022, she helped raise funds for her current basketball home community in Dallas. She and her teammates donated $50,000 to the Dallas Park and Recreation Department as part of the Red Bull’s Dallas Has Wiiings program. The funds went toward installing solar panel lights in one of Dallas’ outdoor basketball courts.
“Now we’ll be able to put lights up so kids at night can come and have a safe place to play basketball,” Ogunbowale says.
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Training the next generation
Ogunbowale is committed to being a good role model and holding the door open for the next line of basketball greats. She hosts youth training camps in Milwaukee and is especially focused on making a difference for young women.
“I want to show young women there is a place for you to make money and have fun in the sport,” she tells Red Bull. “I try to also implement that into my game by making it fun for kids to watch so they can keep on that path.”
Arike is also very involved with NBA Africa and is hoping to build a basketball community in Nigeria.
Arike Ogunbowale’s dream: watching the rise of women’s basketball
Ogunbowale’s hope is to see coverage of women’s basketball continue to grow. As she does her part to mentor young athletes, she wants girls to see more players they can relate to.
“It’s good to put more women’s games on TV because girls want to watch people that are like them,” she tells Red Bull. “Hopefully, younger girls can see us as role models along with the NBA players—and see us as equals.”