Fan tackled after operating at Ogwumike sisters
Mechelle VoepelespnW.com
CloseMechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, girls’s school basketball, and different school sports activities for espnW. Voepel started overlaying girls’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
A fan ran on the Staples Heart courtroom after the Los Angeles Sparks-Seattle Storm WNBA playoff sport on Sunday earlier than being tackled by safety guards.
The fan, who, in accordance with experiences, had earlier been reprimanded for doing pushups on the sideline through the sport, appeared to have one thing in hand as he ran towards the Sparks’ Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike.
“I do not know who that was,” Nneka Ogwumike stated in a postgame information convention after the Sparks’ 92-69 victory. “I feel he was only a very enthusiastic fan who possibly acquired caught up within the second. However, you understand, we have now the safety in place to handle these conditions.”
Nneka Ogwumike had been doing a tv interview on courtroom. Chiney Ogwumike noticed the person coming towards them and moved in entrance of her older sister to guard her.
“Nneka was doing her interview, and I at all times like to stick with her; we stroll off the courtroom collectively,” Chiney Ogwumike instructed the Los Angeles Every day Information. “And out of the nook of my eye, I noticed, ‘Oh, shoot, like what is going on on right here?’ And a few dude was coming at us. And so I simply jumped in, as a result of I am expendable — she will not be! We want her. Center sister gotta at all times take one for the crew. So yeah, I feel it was a fan who wished to get to us. We’re advantageous.”
Nneka Ogwumike was the 2016 WNBA MVP and led the Sparks in scoring and rebounding this season. She had 17 factors and 6 rebounds Sunday, whereas Chiney had six factors and 4 rebounds.
Each sisters starred for Stanford in school; Nneka was the WNBA’s No. 1 draft choose in 2012, and Chiney was No. 1 in 2014. Chiney beforehand performed for the Connecticut Solar earlier than being traded to Los Angeles earlier than this season.
The Ogwumikes have two youthful sisters. Olivia Ogwumike performed basketball for Pepperdine and Rice, and Erica Ogwumike shall be a senior guard this season at Rice, the place she was the Convention USA participant of the 12 months final season.