{"id":3981,"date":"2022-04-04T18:18:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/espns-malika-andrews-and-chiney-ogwumike-are-the-future-in-sports-news-essence\/"},"modified":"2022-04-04T18:18:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:18:55","slug":"espns-malika-andrews-and-chiney-ogwumike-are-the-future-in-sports-news-essence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/04\/espns-malika-andrews-and-chiney-ogwumike-are-the-future-in-sports-news-essence\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews And Chiney Ogwumike Are The Future In Sports News – Essence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day we’re serving Black women deeply. Come get a plate of goodness! Sign up for daily content and exclusive offers you’ll love!
On the daily ESPN show NBA Today<\/em>, host Malika Andrews and WNBA player turned analyst Chiney Ogwumike are applying full-court pressure, Ari Lennox\u2013style, to professional basketball news. \u201cAnd we do it with some flavor,\u201d Ogwumike says.
The rising stars understand that sometimes in sports media, you have to be seen before you\u2019re heard\u2014and both Ogwumike and Andrews take the responsibility of making sure that Black women are seen, seriously<\/a>. \u201cWe know that every time we step in front of a camera, we\u2019re not just doing it for ourselves,\u201d explains Ogwumike, 30. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it for the next generation that looks like us, who grew up not seeing those faces, and now they know they can do this, too.\u201d
Andrews and Ogwumike bring a distinctive voice to their industry\u2014one that\u2019s not often amplified in major sports. \u201cRepresentation matters,\u201d Andrews says. \u201cDiversity of roles for women is just as important as diversity as a whole.\u201d Andrews, 27, a native of Oakland, was one of the youngest sideline reporters in ESPN\u2019s history when she was hired in 2018. Her journalistic prowess during the NBA\u2019s 2019\u201320 Bubble season launched her to the head chair of her own daytime show less than three years into her tenure.
Ogwumike, an All-Star forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, became one of the first professional athletes hired by the network as a full-time employee in 2018. She began her off-court career calling women\u2019s college hoops, sprinkling her H-Town flair into broadcasts around the country. The Nigerian-American also coanchored Africa\u2019s edition of SportsCenter, where she was able to tie her heritage and her passion for sports together.
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Despite taking different paths, Andrews and Ogwumike are on the same team, with the same mission: to be unapologetically themselves and lift each other up along the way. As Ogwumike points out, there\u2019s room for both of them to thrive in this space. \u201cWomen have been conditioned to think that we have to be competitive with one another because there are not enough opportunities for us,\u201d she says. \u201cWe won\u2019t accept that notion anymore. We\u2019re reinventing what it means to succeed as women, and that means being collaborative instead of competitive.\u201d Andrews agrees enthusiastically: \u201cNever forget that you belong,\u201d she adds, \u201cand that you\u2019re needed.\u201d
Though both women are still early in their careers, their anticipation of future Black girls dishing about the X\u2019s and O\u2019s of the NBA on ESPN is electrifying. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a time I\u2019m lucky enough to see my replacement walk through the door,\u201d Andrews says, \u201cand I get to roll out the red carpet for her.\u201d
This article originally appeared in the March\/April 2022 issue of ESSENCE magazine, available on newsstands now.<\/em>
TOPICS:  <\/span> black women in sports<\/a><\/span>
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Every day we’re serving Black women deeply. Come get a plate of goodness! Sign up for daily content and exclusive offers you’ll love!On the daily ESPN show NBA Today, host Malika Andrews and WNBA player turned analyst Chiney Ogwumike are applying full-court pressure, Ari Lennox\u2013style, to professional basketball news. \u201cAnd we do it with some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}