{"id":475071,"date":"2026-09-25T07:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475071\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:08:08","slug":"sparks-ogwumike-tears-up-in-postgame-retirement-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475071\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks’ Ogwumike tears up in postgame retirement ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES —Kaitlyn Chen<\/a> scored 14 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, Gabby Williams<\/a> added eight points in the final 90 seconds, and the Golden State Valkyries<\/a> closed on a 17-4 run to beat the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> 76-75 on Thursday night in the final game for former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Golden State (32-11) secured the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs and will face seventh-seeded Dallas in a first-round series beginning on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ogwumike had 17 points, 15 rebounds and five assists for Los Angeles (16-27) in the final game of her 15-year career. Ogwumike, who announced on Aug. 19 she would retire after this season, posted her 19th double-double of the season and 134th of her career, which ranks sixth in league history.<\/p>\n

The Sparks held an emotional retirement ceremony for Ogwumike after the game. Ever the competitor, she opened her remarks to the crowd by addressing a crucial free throw she missed late in the game.<\/p>\n

“I just gotta get this out of the way: I should’ve made that free throw,” she said. “And I should’ve made the putback a couple possessions before that. You guys know me. I wanted that for you guys, I wanted that for my teammates. But I wouldn’t go down any other way, which is competing hard here in L.A. against some great competition.”<\/p>\n

Ogwumike was overcome with emotion when the Sparks announced in the ceremony that a player sanctuary in its new practice facility would be named after her.<\/p>\n

“This is goodbye, not forever, but I’m always gonna be your L.A. Spark, so I love you guys,” she said.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 overall pick in 2012, Ogwumike was an eight-time All-WNBA selection and won league MVP honors and a championship in 2016.<\/p>\n

Dearica Hamby<\/a> and Rae Burrell<\/a> each scored 15 for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles had a 69-57 lead with 4:42 left, but did not make another field goal until the final second.<\/p>\n

Williams took over down the stretch. She sank a long 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining and stole the ball at the other end before racing for a fast-break layup to get within 72-70. After a miss by Los Angeles, Williams made a 3-pointer with 20.4 seconds left to go ahead 73-72.<\/p>\n

The Sparks had two chances on their next possession before Kiah Stokes<\/a> secured the defensive rebound. Los Angeles coach Lynne Roberts was called for a technical foul with 10.8 seconds left and Kayla Thornton<\/a> made the free throw for a 74-72 lead. Thornton added two more free throws with 8.5 left for a 76-72 lead.<\/p>\n

Williams finished with 14 points in just 20 minutes for Golden State. Veronica Burton<\/a> added 17.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES —Kaitlyn Chen scored 14 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, Gabby Williams added eight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[186750,750,96514,124082,48,52,51,47,50,49,115424,100,135668,53199],"class_list":["post-475071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-186750","tag-espn","tag-espnw","tag-espnw-sports","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-news","tag-ogwumike-nneka","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}