“Yeah, give them what they deserve.”
That’s what Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBPA and one of the newest members of the Seattle Storm, says about NIL deals in an exclusive conversation organized by TOGETHXR. UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the Indiana Fever’s Aliyah Boston and WNBA legend Sue Bird joined Ogwumike for the GET TOGETHXR: NIL Roundtable Special.
Although one of the hottest topics in sports, NIL also is one of the most misunderstood. Bird, Ogwumike, Boston and Bueckers get to the truths about the impact of NIL on women’s college basketball. As Bueckers says during the conversation, “I think it’s interesting how everybody thinks they know everything and they think they know our private business.” Bird and Ogwumike, who hooped for UConn and Stanford, respectively, in the pre-NIL era, chat with Bueckers, who has signed several high-profile NIL deals during her tenure at UConn, and Boston, who experienced college basketball both with and without NIL during her time at South Carolina.
The conversation elicits a number of enlightening perspectives, including:
- Ogwumike reflects on the burdens that come with the benefits of NIL deals, thinking about how she would have navigated the challenge…
