Nigerian-American professional basketball player, Erica Ogwumike said she was ready to play for the Nigeria Women National team, D’Tigress.
Last month, the New York Liberty selected Ogwumike as the 26th pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft and traded to the Minnesota Lynx, where she will begin her professional career after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
The point guard who revealed in a video interview that playing for the D’Tigress was one of her goals, said that combining basketball and medical school would bring her a lot of excitement.
She offered: “I have been drafted into the WNBA and admitted into medical school. I am really excited about that and I am Nigerian. When you get drafted you are trying to make the final cut of the team and that is pretty much the goal right now.
“I am fortunate that medical school doesn’t start until later in the fall, so I have a lot of time to make decisions on both. But right now, basketball is the main thing,” the Rice University graduate added.
If she makes the cut at Lynx, Erica would join her sister Nneka and Chiney as the first trio sister to play in the WNBA.
“I look up to my sisters. I saw that they could do it and I knew it was possible. May be someone like me in the future will go to medical school and play and also become an excellent basketball player.
She also commended the medical personnel in the frontline of the battle against COVID-19 saying she is inspired by their works: “I am inspired by their activities. Risking their lives essentially to get people to get to the optimal level of health is so fascinating. I think that excites me because one day I will have that passion while I continue learning.”
