These Black women are moving the WNBA forward — Andscape

This weekend, the WNBA ecosystem will converge on Indianapolis to celebrate the league’s standout performers. 

On site will be all of the WNBA’s biggest movers, shakers and stakeholders, each of whom have contributed to the league’s current period of exponential growth. Historically, Black women have been some of the biggest contributors to propel the league to its current moment, and they’ll also have an outsized role in continuing that progress.

We’ve assembled a list of Black women who are moving the WNBA forward. They are players and front-office members, executives and creatives – each of whom will play large parts in contributing to the future of the league. We’ve also asked ESPN women’s basketball analysts Ari Chambers, Monica McNutt, Carolyn Peck and LaChina Robinson to share their perspectives on the impact these women have made.

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Her teammates call her Madam President. 

There are few players in the history of the WNBA who have impacted the league both on and off the floor the way Ogwumike has since she was drafted No. 1 overall in 2012. On the court, Ogwumike will end her career as one of the WNBA’s all-time greats. She’s a 10-time All-Star, a WNBA champion and WNBA MVP, and she has made seven All-WNBA and WNBA All-Defensive teams. Since 2016, Ogwumike has been the president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA). In 2020, she, alongside WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson, was instrumental in securing a historic collective bargaining agreement for players. In 2025, Ogwumike is once again at the head of the negotiating table, where she’ll once again lobby for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that could change the game for women’s sports as a whole.

LaChina Robinson: She has truly redefined what leadership looks like from a players association standpoint. She has so gracefully led the WNBA players through some pretty challenging and also revolutionary times. And she does it with such tact and brilliance.

She just really, truly understands how to advocate for what you believe and have impactful, long-lasting change in a leadership position. 

She is very strategic and very intentional about how she uses her energy and her power. She’s just phenomenal in every sense of the word. 

For years, WNBA fans clamored, even begged, for apparel that matched their demand and excitement for the league and its players. Wallace and her streetwear brand, Playa Society, have not only met that demand but also have injected the league with a sense of cultural alignment through its apparel and messaging.

Playa Society was founded in 2018 by Wallace, who played college basketball at Fairleigh Dickinson University from 2008-12 and professionally overseas. Wallace’s apparel drops and activations at WNBA tentpole events draw lines and crowds that clear shelves. She has even gone beyond apparel, most recently designing a special “statement court” for the Atlanta Dream.

LaChina Robinson: Esther is a creative genius. She is a trailblazer and a pioneer when it comes to sports apparel and marketing. What she has done at the intersection of fandom and culture has changed the game not just for the WNBA but every women’s sport and every entity that she’s partnered with. 

She’s also become a blueprint for how to partner with major brands as an apparel company. 

When you look at what she’s done with brands like Aflac and Cash App, she is literally setting the bar and creating new space for Black-owned businesses, for minority-owned businesses, for women-owned businesses, of what you can truly achieve as a bootstrap organization. 

As the head of league operations, Donaphin occupies one of the most important roles among the WNBA’s executive leadership. She was instrumental in constructing the 2020 WNBA bubble season, a feat that many say kept the league afloat. In addition to the responsibilities of her role, which includes overseeing officiating, rules and regulations, Donaphin, a former WNBA player, is viewed as the “translation layer” between WNBA players and executives. She runs the league’s player marketing program, participates in CBA negotiations and oversees the WNBA’s social justice, mental health and community engagement platforms.

LaChina Robinson: Bethany’s position in the front office has been vital for the growth of the WNBA. 

There are a lot of people who are equipped to talk business, but not everyone truly understands the intersection of women athletes in business from the league standpoint. Bethany has had to be that connection, and she’s done a masterful job providing insight as a former WNBA player while also maintaining the interests of the league. 

What often happens is that you will have a lot of people who have much-needed expertise on how to market or how to build fans or how to put on a Finals, but having the input of a former player brings the perspective of what’s important to the women of the WNBA, which is a critical aspect of making the league successful.

She has truly done a wonderful job of balancing all of those aspects of WNBA operations, player relations and business development in her tenure.

The WNBA’s growing push to increase its global footprint has coincided with a rise in international talent making its mark on the league. From the established Sabally sisters (Germany) to Monique Akoa Makani (Cameroon) and Dominique Malonga (France), to projected first-round pick in 2026 Awa Fam (Spain), the success of international players will surely have a large impact on not only the league’s prowess but also its global visibility.

Carolyn Peck: I think that you’ve got to look at the success of, first, the women that have come in. The women from Brazil and the impact they’ve made. You know, you have the Sabally sisters from Germany. I mean, it just is a sign of the growth and the evolution of women’s basketball, not just in the United States but around the world. You saw so many women of color in the Olympics. It’s exciting that the evolution is not just in the United States. 

LaChina Robinson: After the Olympics, I was like, holy smokes, like, this next wave of athletes coming from international basketball is so good. … There are some Black women basketball players all over the world representing various countries that are going to impact the future of the WNBA in a major way.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that Reese has had on the WNBA brand. She’s a two-time All-Star who is on a blazing trajectory to become the best rebounder the league has ever seen. Reese has brought a cultural crossover to the WNBA to a scale that few have done before her, drawing new audiences and fans to the league.

Reese’s growing business acumen is as strong as her on-court play. She’s a peak example of what’s possible in terms of personal branding in today’s WNBA. Who else is unveiling a signature sneaker and appearing on the cover of the WNBA edition of the upcoming NBA 2K26 video game (while showcasing said shoe) – on the same day?

Ari Chambers: Angel Reese brought culture, like, full, unapologetic culture to the league in a scale that I don’t think anybody’s been able to reach yet. She has millions of followers and isn’t afraid to step into the spotlight. She maximizes every single hour of the day to make sure that she can always prove herself. Her dedication to proving herself supersedes proving people wrong. 

I think that’s where she gets her star quality from. She is able to be present for the Met Gala, but then show up at training camp. She’s able to celebrate her birthday and then have a preseason game the very next literal second. She’s able to show that if people want to spin her story, that she can tell her own on her own platform.

She has a business mindset, and she knows how to capitalize off engagement and traction and monetize it. She’s much smarter than what people try to give her credit for, and she has an armor about her that … if you’re not born with it, I don’t know if you can acquire it. She knows how to just keep going, and her ability to keep going despite ridicule, despite adversity, is a crown that is uniquely hers.

Monica McNutt: Grace, man. Grace and strength. … What is that baby, 23, 22? 

To perform under the scrutiny both on and off the court, and I’m sure it is powerful because she’s certainly a tastemaker, trendsetter, all of the above. But her arc so far in such a young career in the WNBA – her arc in women’s basketball will always stand out. 

Whether folks are willing to acknowledge it or not, these women are more than just basketball players. And they are certainly treated and viewed as such [in] society, whether that means that they will be celebrated or criticized. But she is one who we will look at as a case study for years to come, I’m sure.

An area of growth relating to diversity in the WNBA has come in the front office as the presence of Black general managers and assistant general managers in the league has risen.

The WNBA’s first duo of new expansion teams, the Golden State Valkyries and the Toronto Tempo, have Black women as their general managers. Nyanin, previously the assistant general manager of the New York Liberty, is the general manager of the Valkyries, who have so far exceeded expectations in their inaugural season. Rogers, who previously held the role of assistant general manager of the Phoenix Mercury, is the general manager of the Tempo, who are set to tip off their inaugural season in 2026. It’s a promising sign for diverse hiring in the WNBA, and their success leading the league’s newest franchises could prove monumental for those in line.

Connecticut Sun general manager Morgan Tuck and Washington Mystics general manager Jamila Wideman are the other Black GMs in the league.

LaChina Robinson: If there is a place that understands the value of what Black women bring to sport, it should be the WNBA. … I’m excited for how many more hirings like this we will see with more teams to come over the next few years. What it does is it assures the women in this league that there is a place for them beyond the court. And it also shows that young girl who’s watching these players play that there is a place for you. Even if you can’t score 20 points a night, you could be a GM. 

I am a huge fan of Monica Wright Rogers, and look at the job Ohemaa has done with Golden State. It is really impressive. These women succeeding in their positions will open up the doors for others to come after them.

She’s the face of the league for a reason. 

The effect that Wilson has had on the WNBA and what she has accomplished – all before turning 29, mind you – is astonishing. She’s a two-time WNBA champion, three-time MVP, a Finals MVP and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. That’s only scratching the surface. She has broken barriers on the court, becoming the first 1,000-point scorer in a single regular season in WNBA history. She also has broken barriers off the court as the first Black woman since Candace Parker to have her own signature shoe. Her influence is all over the game – see the leg sleeve. If that’s not enough, she’s also a bestselling author.

Wilson has put forth a Hall of Fame-level resume. It’s crazy to think that it also feels like she’s just getting started.

Ari Chambers: I cannot praise A’ja Wilson enough for how she has just really come in and taken the basketball world by storm and given every Black girl from the South hope and shown us that the limit doesn’t exist. 

All of A’ja’s career has been persevering. She stayed home [University of South Carolina], brought a championship to her home and kept everybody close from her home as she journeyed and ascended throughout the league and international play – a couple Olympic gold medals, a couple of FIBA world championships, you know, just something slight.

That’s just her whole life, just greatness, and to be a Nike signature athlete and be so undeniable that Nike has to give you that shoe is something that people don’t necessarily always talk about with A’ja. Even with the rollout of her shoe, I know this is more of a Nike thing, but you can’t do the rollout if it doesn’t apply to her. She’s just so unapologetically Black, and being a Black woman from the South, she walks like she’s a Black woman from the South. Every action of hers reflects that, and just having that pride of where you come from and just being so rooted – to me I look at her and I’m like, “This is what the ancestors are smiling on.”

Parker embodied what it meant to push the game forward as one of the sport’s positionless juggernauts. For so many, she’s considered the blueprint for how WNBA players can blend basketball with business, opening the door for players like Wilson and Reese. Even in retirement, though, Parker’s presence and influence in basketball has remained as strong as ever. Whether as an analyst for TNT or as the president of Adidas Women’s Basketball, Parker holds tremendous power when it comes to impacting the WNBA and its players and pushing the league forward.

LaChina Robinson: For years, Candace lifted the game on the court as one of the greatest to ever play. Moving forward, she’s going to lift the game with her voice and basketball IQ as a broadcaster. She will also have the opportunity to serve as a trailblazer at Adidas as an executive – teaching the future of women’s basketball to create and elevate their personal brands, capitalize on media exposure, and guide them on how to move in the marketing space. This is coming from someone who was ahead of her time in how she built her own platform as a sports mogul and icon. Candace will have longer-lasting impact and is going to extend her legacy into generations of players to come.

In a league made up of predominantly Black women, Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn stands alone as the league’s only Black female head coach – and one of three Black head coaches in the league.

A Black woman head coach has never won a WNBA championship, though two have come close, including Pokey Chatman, who currently serves on Quinn’s coaching staff. There’s reason to believe Quinn, who played 12 seasons in the WNBA and won a title with Seattle in 2018, could be the first as she leads a Storm team currently in the top third of the WNBA standings.

LaChina Robinson: Noelle has a great opportunity to be the longest-tenured Black woman head coach in WNBA history, and I say that because she’s in the right place with the right support, the right organization, and she’s brilliant. 

I don’t know if there’s anyone that started their career with more of a microscope on them than Noelle Quinn. … She pushed through all of that and now has a core group of future Hall of Famers — but players that believe in her as much as she believes in them.

I really like what’s happening in Seattle, and Noelle has the basketball knowledge and the disposition to really make a significant mark for Black women head coaches in the WNBA.

Carolyn Peck: I think that it’s cliche, but pressure is a privilege. And she looks at it that way. You know, it’s not something that you approach in a fear of, “What if I don’t succeed?” And I love how she approaches [it] – she is going to succeed and to continue to demonstrate the strength of Black women and their knowledge of the game.

As CEO of the New York Liberty, a position she has held since 2020, Clarke has pushed the standard for how a WNBA team should operate in this current era of the league. With the Liberty, she has created a powerful brand and identity that has been perfectly in step with the organization’s championship-winning on-court product. Under Clarke’s direction, New York has been one of the league’s most innovative franchises and has done well to match the vibrance and culture of the city they play in – from Lil’ Kim halftime shows to the construction and branding of the ever-popular Ellie the Elephant (Clarke’s creation).

Ari Chambers: Keia listens. She listens to the community. She realizes that New York is in Brooklyn, and what do the Brooklyn people want? Because at the end of the day, the people that can get to your games are the people that are going to pack up the arenas. 

They trusted each other in things as huge as Ellie. They made sure Ellie was a feminine-presenting mascot. They made sure that she has the freedom to express herself through music, through movement, the relatability of her, just from her jersey dress to her bamboo earrings to her nails, her handbags. Being able to integrate Black designers to showcase them in the tunnel ’fits and knowing what people are paying attention to, like with beauty products and music. There’s so much that Keia has brought because she has trusted the rest of her staff, trusted the community, heard what they were begging for, and she’s serving them. 

Collier is quickly becoming one of the most powerful presences in women’s basketball. She’s one of the best two-way players in the game and will likely contend for MVP awards, as well as championships, for years to come. She also serves on the executive committee of the WNBPA as it attempts to negotiate another landmark CBA for its players. 

Collier is also co-founder of Unrivaled, a first-of-its-kind 3-on-3 league that tipped off its inaugural season this past winter. In addition to providing an opportunity for WNBA players to compete stateside during the offseason while being competitively compensated, Collier and Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart aimed to raise the standard for accommodations for pro women’s players in the United States. As her career continues, Collier’s stake in the sport will only grow. 

Monica McNutt: When I think of Phee, I think of, like, this quiet assassin. … I feel like if I could cast her energy, she’d be, like, Black Widow.

[She’s] sort of unassuming, but when she’s in her element, incredible. I think what she has done with Unrivaled, again, to make history in that way, just to move on a vision. And to bet on women, to bet on herself as a leader, I think she is so multidimensional and in many ways probably undercelebrated and appreciated, both as a basketball player, I think, and as a businesswoman.