Olivia Nelson-Ododa (born August 17, 2000) is an American professional

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

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established as the Orlando Miracle in ...

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). 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 ...

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from ...

High school career

Nelson-Ododa played basketball for Winder-Barrow High School in

Winder, Georgia Winder (pronounced WINE-der) is a city and the county seat of Barrow County, Georgia, United States. It is located east of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. The population was 18,338 at the 2020 census. History The Georgia Gen ...

. As a sophomore, she was named '' Athens Banner-Herald'' Co-Player of the Year after averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds per game, and leading her team to the Class 6A state final. She averaged 16.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game as a junior before suffering a season-ending knee injury. As a senior, she averaged 19 points, 16 rebounds, and six blocks per game, and was named Miss Georgia Basketball. She was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game.

Recruiting

Nelson-Ododa was rated a five-star recruit and one of the top players in the 2018 class by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

. On November 15, 2017, she committed to playing college basketball for

over offers from

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

College career

As a freshman at UConn, Nelson-Ododa mostly came off the bench, averaging 4.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. On December 22, 2019, she recorded a career-high 27 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks in a 97–53 win against Oklahoma. As a sophomore, Nelson-Ododa earned Second-Team All-

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

(AAC) honors, and averaged 10.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and an AAC-best 3.1 blocks per game. She became the fifth player in program history with over 100 blocks in a season. In her junior season, Nelson-Ododa averaged 12 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.8 blocks per game. She was named

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

Co-Defensive Player of the Year and to the Second Team All-Big East.

Professional career

On April 11, 2022, Nelson-Ododa was drafted in the second round, 19th overall, by the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

in the 2022 WNBA draft. On January 13, 2023, Nelson-Ododa was traded to the

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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National team career

Nelson-Ododa won a bronze medal with the United States at the

2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national team ...

in Spain, where she averaged a team-high 12 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. At the 2018 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship in Mexico, she averaged 9.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, helping her team win the gold medal. Nelson-Ododa was the youngest player representing the United States at the 2019 FIBA AmeriCup in Puerto Rico, where she won another gold medal. Nelson-Ododa competed for the United States in

3x3 basketball 3x3 basketball (pronounced ''three-ex-three'') is a variation of basketball played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup. According to an ESSEC Business School study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, 3x3 ...

at the

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in Peru, and won a gold medal.

Personal life

Nelson-Ododa's father, Sebastian Ododa, played basketball for Huntington University and the Kenyan national team. Her older brother, Alonzo, played professionally and was engaged to WNBA player

Dearica Hamby Dearica Marie Hamby (born November 6, 1993) is an American basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). College During her senior year Hamby averaged 20.3 points, the highest scoring average ...

. Her younger brother, Isaiah, plays college basketball for

Tennessee Tech Tennessee Technological University, commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech, is a public research university in Cookeville, Tennessee, United States. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as University of Dixie ...

References

External links

*
UConn Huskies bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson-Ododa, Olivia 2000 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Lansing, Michigan Basketball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Connecticut Sun players People from Winder, Georgia Power forwards (basketball) UConn Huskies women's basketball players McDonald's High School All-Americans American people of Kenyan descent Sportspeople of Kenyan descent United States women's national basketball team players Basketball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in basketball Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Los Angeles Sparks draft picks Los Angeles Sparks players