SEATTLE — Ezi Magbegor signed the Storm’s largest contract in the offseason, worth $3,750,000 total over three years, to keep the only remaining member of the 2020 WNBA Championship-winning team in Seattle. That was her rookie season, and she was just 20 years old. Now 27 and in her seventh season with the Storm, the franchise hopes she can be the key younger-yet-veteran core of a rebuilding team. But for most of the season, her contributions have been contained to the sidelines as she dealt with injuries.
Before the season started, Magbegor suffered a foot injury while playing for Australia in the 2026 FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers in March. After 20 missed games, the center returned to the floor on July 2 at Phoenix. She played three games off the bench on a minutes restriction; then, in her fourth game back, she took a hit to the face in Atlanta and broke her nose. The facial injury and some related concussion symptoms meant she then missed another six games and the All-Star break, returning a second time on July 31 in the same city where she suffered the injury, now with a mask she will wear the rest of the season.
Her return is belatedly joyous news for fans and the team.
Storm fans love their team and fill Climate Pledge Arena with applause, but there is little they love more than an emphatic Magbegor block. That was reinforced when the Aussie swatted a layup attempt by Chicago’s Dijonai Carrington in the fourth quarter on Sunday, elating home fans as they got to watch her in Seattle for just the second time this season, first since July 4. Her teammates missed that defensive presence too.
“I feel like Ezi’s our defensive anchor. She’s protecting that paint,” guard Jordan Horston said postgame. “You know, a lot of times I might funnel a guard into her so that I can see like an amazing block, because I know she’s going to be there. It just takes a lot of pressure off of everybody. I mean, because she flies around, she’s there, she’s meeting people at the rim, rebounding. It makes a difference, I gotta say, guarding the ball, knowing that I have somebody like her behind me, I’m comfortable.”
While 6’4 Magbegor featured off the bench when returning from the foot injury that affected her game fitness, this time she was immediately put into the starting lineup alongside 6’6 Dominique Malonga, moving 6’4 rookie Awa Fam to the bench. Head coach Sonia Raman now has three of the longest and most agile bigs in the league to work with, but Raman knew she wanted Magbegor starting as soon as she was ready.
“She brings a really strong veteran presence for us,” Raman praised at practice on Wednesday. “She brings leadership, obviously, just a huge presence on the defensive side of the ball, especially the rim protection, the physicality. She knows the league, you know, so we really wanted to tap into all the things that she can bring.”
For most of the season, Magbegor brought that from the sideline. Malonga told The IX Sports that her fellow post player always had wise and helpful words from that position, but it is different with her on the court.
“It’s good to have her rhythm and her poise, the steadiness that she brings. She has a veteran presence, and you really feel it,” Malonga said. “She always has great energy that’s super easy to follow, so I think the difference is now she can put actions behind the words and lead by example.”
While Raman searches for the best combinations for her talented frontcourt to lean into their strengths, taking the backcourt into account as much as the front, she sees all of them finding ways to contribute positively with their playing time, and leave it all on the floor because they have people coming in. Despite the change in lineups, the new starting duo of Magbegor and Malonga feel their chemistry is coming along nicely.
“I think we had a couple reps together last year too, so it was really natural,” Malonga told The IX Sports about starting alongside Magbegor. “I mean, I love Ezi and our connection is really natural, so I don’t even feel like we had to adjust. I just feel like right away it clicked and I think we’re efficient together.”
Though her average statistical contributions so far this season are below her career averages, Magbegor has found success playing the defense she is revered for and offensively driving to the basket. Her defense particularly has helped fuel the transition Seattle wants to play in.
“I think obviously after being out for so long, you kind of have to get back into game shape, and so I do pride myself defensively and just trying to get a little bit quicker with that, and then trying to just read the game, read my teammates offensively,” Magbegor said of returning to form. “I like to play quick and in transition, off drives as well. And so I think that’s also something that’s been intentional in getting me back into the game as well. … I think the offense that we’re playing this year as well is helping me do that.”
Growing through the rehab process
Even before the broken nose, Magbegor’s offseason foot injury was the longest she had been unable to play thus far in her career. Because it wasn’t something she had faced before, she said after her first return that she wasn’t sure how she would handle it mentally. Luckily, she feels it went pretty well.
“I think just being surrounded by great people and a lot of positive energy really helped me,” Magbegor told a small group of reporters pregame on July 4. “I know that I’m someone that needs to be in a comfortable, safe environment, in terms of who I surround myself with, and I feel like I had that.
“Injuries are tough and rehab is tough, but I think I had more good than bad days. And I think, you know, obviously I was able to focus more on my outfits just because I could put more focus onto that, and it kind of helped with the rehab process, and just creating a different focus on gameday.”
Magbegor said she had been wanting to get more into tunnel fits for a while, having touched on it a little bit towards the end of last season. So with time to fill, she decided it was the perfect time to focus on her outfits and representing her Nigerian heritage through fashion.
She did a lot of the styling herself and, for a few of the outfits, sourced pieces that were from Nigeria; she had a stylist who helped her with those. For the more traditional outfit she wore in her last game before returning to play, a stunning red dress and headpiece, her parents got the material in Nigeria and then the dress was made by one of their friends in Australia.
“It made my parents really proud,” Magbegor said. “My mom’s been begging me to wear like traditional attire, I’m like, ‘No, Mum, it’s too formal for a basketball game.’ But I didn’t think it was. I think I just had fun kind of playing around with different outfits and just like showing up to games and being creative, because I think that’s where I find interest as well, and just like dressing up, having fun, and representing my culture the way that I want to.
“I think it’s just fun being able to share and hear [my parents’] stories, and also just carry on tradition and culture as well, which is important to them, but important to me as well.”
Magbegor also embraced leadership while sidelined. It is a role she has begrudgingly stepped into this season with such a young roster, thinking it is a natural part of sports and growth in any workplace.
She always felt more like a lead-by-example person, but because she couldn’t do that while injured, she learned throughout the rehab process that there are many different ways you can pour into your teammates; there is no one way to be a leader.
“I think I’ve just found different ways to kind of like isolate different people and kind of pour into them in that way, knowing that maybe I see the game better than I thought I did watching it from the bench and watching during practices,” Magbegor said. “I think it’s more just like letting my voice like kind of come and be heard in certain situations, and not feeling like it needs to be validated by others — being confident in myself.”
Magbegor has also found inspiration in her more veteran teammates, 29-year-old point guard Natisha Hiedeman and 34-year-old center Stefanie Dolson. It has been helpful having them so that the leadership onus isn’t always on her while also seeing their leadership styles.
“I’m just sharing my experiences and knowledge in the same way that people did that for me, and so I feel like it would be almost selfish not to in a way,” Magbegor said. “So I’m enjoying it. It’s not like I’m going outside of myself, I’m just doing it in my way.”
Her team is already out of playoff contention this season, but she says the focus is still on winning while working on her individual game. For herself and the other young post players, there is also the motivation of working on their individual game going into the FIBA World Cup. Magbegor and guard Jade Melbourne will represent Australia at the tournament; Malonga is expected to play for France and Fam for Spain.
“I think being able to play well individually and as a team is going to help us prepare for that in the best way possible,” Magbegor said. “It is hard, you know, being out of contention. But I think you kind of have to shift your mindset and know, like, okay, we’re not going to make the playoffs, but we’re going to compete every game. Our goal is to win every game that we’re playing for the rest of the season.”
