Late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game between the Dallas Wings and Atlanta Dream, with Dallas leading by double-digits, star guard Arike Ogunbowale received a double technical and was ejected. As Ogunbowale headed toward the locker room, the crowd gave her a raucous standing ovation and she reveled in it, encouraging fans to get as loud as possible. Just before she disappeared into the tunnel, she stopped and signed an autograph as well. Her technical fouls were two of 10 total doled out during Wings-Dream.
Arike hyped up the crowd and signed an autograph after getting ejected
pic.twitter.com/YRJnzMvX2w
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 21, 2023
There were TEN TECHS called in the Dream-Wings game
Sheesh.
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 21, 2023
Ogunbowale completely owned the moment. She held a spectacle, played off the crowd perfectly, soaked it in and punctuated the entire sequence with an autograph. If you’re going to be ejected in the waning minutes of a rout, that’s how you do it. Ogunbowale aced it. I need more athletes to follow suit. Can we get players to ink an entire line of autographs for fans? How far can things be stretched? I want to test the utmost boundaries here. Let’s get weird.
Alongside Natasha Howard’s game-high 23 points, Ogunbowale notched 21 points, three boards and two assists, helping power Dallas to an 85-73 win for its sixth victory of the year. Ogunbowale entered Tuesday’s contest averaging a career-high 23.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 11 appearances this season.