{"id":657945,"date":"2026-05-22T06:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657945\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:29:08","slug":"nneka-ogwumike-passes-tamika-catchings-now-5th-all-time-scorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657945\/","title":{"rendered":"Nneka Ogwumike passes Tamika Catchings, now 5th all-time scorer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> forward Nneka Ogwumike<\/a>cleared another WNBA milestone Thursday night, surpassing Tamika Catchings for fifth on the all-time scoring list.<\/p>\n

Ogwumike entered Thursday’s game against the Phoenix Mercury<\/a> 10 points away from the record. She quickly got there in the second quarter, scoring her ninth and 10th points on a midrange jumper. After finishing with 12 points, Ogwumike now has 7,383 for her career.<\/p>\n

“She amazes me every day,” teammate Cameron Brink<\/a> said after the Sparks’ 97-88 win. “Her ability to lead and be a super caring human, but also just a killer on the court. We’re super proud of her.”<\/p>\n

Tina Thompson is fourth on the all-time scoring list with 7,488 points, and DeWanna Bonner<\/a>, who plays for the Mercury, is third with 7,871 points. Tina Charles (8,396) and Diana Taurasi (10,646) are second and first, respectively.<\/p>\n

Ogwumike and Bonner are the only active players in the top five.<\/p>\n

“Her being here is a full-circle moment,” Dearica Hamby<\/a> said. “To break that record, being back in L.A., I’m sure it means a lot to her. Being able to play beside her is cool.”<\/p>\n

Ogwumike returned to Los Angeles this season after two years with the Seattle Storm<\/a>. Before her stint in Seattle, Ogwumike played the first 12 years of her career with the Sparks, who drafted her with the first pick in 2012.<\/p>\n

Ogwumike won Rookie of the Year that season and then won MVP and a championship with the Sparks in 2016. Now, she hopes to help lead Los Angeles back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.<\/p>\n

“I want to be great,” Ogwumike told ESPN last week. “It’s not enough to just be healthy. I want to win.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumikecleared another WNBA milestone Thursday night, surpassing Tamika Catchings for fifth on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[283491,352,25688,3029,3,283027,99,434],"class_list":["post-657945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-283491","tag-espn","tag-espnw","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-news","tag-ogwumike-nneka","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}