Michaela Nne Onyenwere (; born August 10, 1999) is a Nigerian-American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player for the Phoenix Mercury of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) and for the

Uni Girona CB Uni Girona Club de Basquet, also known as Spar Girona (previously Spar Citylift Girona) for sponsorship reasons, is a Spanish women's basketball club from Girona. History Founded in 2005 from the fusion of local clubs CE Santa Eugènia and CB Ve ...

of the

Liga Femenina de Baloncesto The Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, also known as Liga Femenina Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of league competition for women's basketball in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's Liga ACB and is run by the Spanish Ba ...

. She played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

with the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

of the Pac-12 Conference. In high school, Onyenwere was named a

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger s ...

in 2017. Following the 2017–18 season, Onyenwere was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. In the 2018–19 season, Onyenwere's sophomore season, she was named to the All-Pac-12 team and to the Media All-Pac-12 team, and she ranked second in the Pac-12 for offensive rebounds per game. After that season, she earned on a spot on the 2019 U.S. Pan-American Games Women's Basketball Team. In the 2019–20 season, Onyenwere was again named to the All-Pac-12 team, along with her teammate

Japreece Dean Japreece Monet Dean (born June 4, 1996, in Austin, Texas) is an American professional basketball player. Dean completed her college career with the UCLA Bruins of the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. Before transferring to UCLA in ...

WNBA career

Onyenwere was drafted 6th overall in the

2021 WNBA draft The 2021 WNBA draft was the WNBA's draft for the 2021 WNBA season. A draft lottery was held on December 4, 2020, and the New York Liberty were awarded the first overall pick once again in the draft. The draft was held on April 15, and televised o ...

by the New York Liberty . In her rookie season in 2021 Onyenwere was named 2021

WNBA Rookie of the Year The Women's National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the 1998 WNBA season, to the top rookie of the regular season. The winner is selected by a panel ...

, Onyenwere was the leading candidate for most of the season, winning every Rookie of the Month award to become just the fifth player in WNBA history to sweep that honor during a season. As expected the voting was not close, and Onyenwere fell just two votes shy of winning unanimously. Over the course of the season, Onyenwere's playing time and production decreased, Onyenwere was still the most productive player in the class by some margin. She averaged 8.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, leading all rookies in scoring and 3-pointers made (37). The last time the leading rookie scorer didn't average double figures was 2005, when Tameka Johnson put up 9.3 points per game for the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference ...

. The 2021 draft class was one of the weaker rookie classes in recent history. In December, 2021, she joined the Catalan team

of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Phoenix Mercury (2023-present)

On February 11, 2023 Onyenwere was traded to the Phoenix Mercury in a four-team trade involving the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, Dallas Wings, and

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2 ...

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, style="text-align:left;", New York , 32 , , 29 , , 22.2 , , .401 , , .327 , , .836 , , 2.9 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 1.1 , , 8.6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, style="text-align:left;", New York , 34 , , 1 , , 13.7 , , .377 , , .300 , , .836 , , 2.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.2 , , 0.7 , , 4.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 2 years, 1 team , 66 , , 30 , , 17.8 , , .392 , , .319 , , .836 , , 2.5 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 0.9 , , 6.6

Playoffs

, - , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:left;", New York , 1 , , 0 , , 9.0 , , .000 , , .000 , , .000 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:left;", New York , 3 , , 0 , , 7.3 , , .364 , , .000 , , 1.000 , , 1.3 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 2 years, 1 team , 4 , , 0 , , 7.8 , , .333 , , .000 , , 1.000 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.5

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onyenwere, Michaela 1999 births Living people American sportspeople of Nigerian descent American women's basketball players Basketball players from Colorado Forwards (basketball) McDonald's High School All-Americans New York Liberty draft picks New York Liberty players Sportspeople from Aurora, Colorado UCLA Bruins women's basketball players Basketball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Phoenix Mercury players Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in basketball 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women United States women's national basketball team players