Nneka Ogwumike to miss June 4th, 2024 game against Phoenix due to eye issue

By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - Although the initial availability report for the Seattle Storm ahead of their Commissioners Cup contest at home against the Phoenix Mercury was clean, with nobody listed for any reason, the Storm will be without a key contributor in this contest tonight at Climate Pledge Arena. Forward Nneka Ogwumike is officially OUT and unavailable tonight with an eye injury sustained during the teams practice yesterday, Monday, June 3rd. It will be the third game that Ogwumike has missed during the 2024 season so far.

Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike has been hit in the face on multiple occasions this season, including during the teams blowout victory over the Washington Mystics at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, May 25th. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)

Ogwumike was poked in the eye yesterday during the teams practice, and initially believed that things were going to be fine and that it wasn’t going to be an issue for this Tuesday, June 4th contest as Seattle begins their Commissioners Cup run against the Mercury. When Nneka woke up this morning ahead of shootaround at the Storm Center for Basketball Performance, the eye that had been poked hadn’t gotten better and as such she is being held out of tonight’s game. Seattle will likely slot Mercedes Russell into her spot in the starting lineup and give her Nneka’s minutes. Newly signed Joyner Holmes can also help chip in as a forward considering her versatility on the court and ability to stretch the floor.

Nneka Ogwumike missed two games earlier this 2024 season, May 19th against the Washington Mystics and May 20th against the New York Liberty (both on the road), with an ankle tweak in the teams double overtime loss to the Minnesota Lynx to begin a that three-game road trip on May 17th. It was stated postgame that she’d be fine and should be good to go following the double overtime defeat, but with the quick turnaround time of those games and considering they were a back-to-back, the Storm held her out as a precaution. With a long and grinding WNBA season ahead, considering how the schedule is impacted this year due to the Olympics, Seattle will want to do what they can to ensure they have Ogwumike for the long haul and that means taking precaution at times.

What’s next?

While the Storm will be without Ogwumike for this home game, which comes ahead of stretch of five road games in their next six contests, Seattle still has to keep their focus on tonight. They’ll be hosting the Phoenix Mercury at Climate Pledge Arena with a tipoff time of 7PM PDT, that will be broadcast on Arizona's Family 3TV / Arizona's Family Sports, CBS Sports Network, FOX 13+ / Amazon Prime Video - Seattle, Mercury Live (Livestream). This is the first game of the WNBA’s Commissioners Cup for the Storm this season, and second for the Mercury as they defeated the LA Sparks in their first Cup game back on June 2nd. The Commissioner’s Cup presented by Coinbase is an annual in-season competition. The team from each conference with the top record in Commissioner’s Cup games will compete for a $500,000 prize pool in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship presented by Coinbase, which will be played on Tuesday, June 25 at the arena of the team with the best record in Cup play. Coinbase has committed an additional $120,000 in cryptocurrency to the prize pool, which includes $5,000 for each player in the championship game. The Storm won the Commissioners Cup back in 2021, it’s first year of existence.

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Cover photo by Rio Giancarlo. Check out our previous articles with photos by Rio Giancarlo here, and his portfolio here.

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