Arike Ogunbowale has had a tricky season, at the very least by her requirements. The 28-year-old guard averaged 15.5 factors on 36.4% capturing — each profession lows. The truth is, 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 group, an honor bestowed upon the league’s 10 finest 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 Yr, Most Worthwhile Participant, and others, and oftentimes, groups rally behind considerably unlikely candidates for numerous 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 group (and Rookie of the Yr).
In her first season as a professional, Bueckers has averaged 18.9 factors, 5.3 assists, and three.8 rebounds per sport, capturing 46.7% from the sphere. Bueckers is a frontrunner for Rookie of the Yr, although Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron has additionally had a robust and environment friendly season.
Whether or not Bueckers will probably be named to the All-WNBA group stays to be seen — solely 10 gamers throughout the league are named to All-WNBA. She presently 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 group member; she was named to the First Group as soon as (2020) and the Second Group twice (2021, 2024).
However, regardless, it appears Ogunbowale will probably be out of the combo this 12 months — because the Wings deleted their publish campaigning for Ogunbowale to be named to the All-WNBA quickly after she posted her personal Tweet poking enjoyable on the marketing campaign.
