Arike Ogunbowale has had a tough season, at least by her standards. The 28-year-old guard averaged 15.5 points on 36.4% shooting — both career lows. In fact, she posted almost 7 points less than her average last season (she tallied 22.2 points per game in 2024).
And, at 9-32, the Wings have the WNBA’s worst record.
Still, on Tuesday, the Dallas Wings began campaigning for Ogunbowale to be named to the All-WNBA team, an honor bestowed upon the league’s 10 best players after every season, as voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.
It’s typical for teams to campaign for end-of-season accolades like All-WNBA, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and others, and oftentimes, teams rally behind somewhat unlikely candidates for various accolades.
This season, Ogunbowale was a particularly unlikely selection.
So, Ogunbowale turned to social media shortly after and joked that the Wings were setting her up: “Here I am enjoying my off day and Dallas setting me up.”
Instead, Ogunbowale took the opportunity to campaign for rookie teammate Paige Bueckers to be named to the All-WNBA team (and Rookie of the Year).
In her first season as a pro, Bueckers has averaged 18.9 points, 5.3 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game, shooting 46.7% from the field. Bueckers is a frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, though Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron has also had a strong and efficient season.
Whether Bueckers will be named to the All-WNBA team remains to be seen — only 10 players across the league are named to All-WNBA. She currently averages the 5th-most points and 7th-most assists per game, though the Wings have seen considerably less success than the teams of other players with similar numbers.
Ogunbowale is a three-time All-WNBA team member; she was named to the First Team once (2020) and the Second Team twice (2021, 2024).
But, regardless, it seems Ogunbowale will be out of the mix this year — as the Wings deleted their post campaigning for Ogunbowale to be named to the All-WNBA soon after she posted her own Tweet poking fun at the campaign.
