Arike Ogunbowale’s basketball career has been on a steady upward trajectory since college, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. As a junior at Notre Dame, she buried not one, but two game-winning shots in the Final Four—the second one immediately canonizing her as one of coldest killers college basketball has ever seen.

Her WNBA career began with a bang, too. Ogunbowale was drafted by the Dallas Wings and averaged 19.1 points per game as a rookie in 2019, then led the league in scoring during the 2020 pandemic season. She made her first All-Star appearance in 2021 (and picked up All-Star MVP honors), and earned her second straight appearance last year.

Entering her fifth season in the league—fresh off a couple State Farm ads that upped her global recognition—Ogunbowale wants to keep this momentum going. Undoubtedly one of the league’s best scorers, and one of its most stylish dressers, there seems to be no limit to what she can accomplish. Before her season gets going and she starts torching every defender in her path, Ogunbowale spoke with GQ about her plans for 2023 and a basketball deity who she kicked it with during the offseason.

Is it weird to be 26 years old, heading into your fifth season in the league, and be one of the oldest players on the team?

Yeah it’s kind of crazy. I’ve always been one of the youngest. But it’s cool because, through all my years in Dallas, I’m one of the ones that’s still left here. I can help some of the newer players. It’s definitely cool to be in this position. But yeah, only Natasha [Howard], Diamond [DeShields], and [Teaira] McCowan are older than me.

Are you the type of person who sets tangible goals for yourself each season?

For sure, I sit down with myself and the trainers to talk about individual goals, team goals, and what I can do to get there. It’s a little bit of both stats and feel-based goals. Obviously, I want to win a championship with this team. Individually, I just want to be better than last year, so I’ll look at those numbers. And since I’m one of the oldest on the team now, helping the younger players and being a leader is always a goal.

Do you check your stats during the season? I’m always fascinated by athletes who can just rattle off all of their stats.

The ones who say they never look are lying! There’s the scoreboard, and you get a box score at the end of each game, so you see it even if you don’t want to see it. I don’t go out of my way to know, but I know because it’s everywhere! Players know exactly how many [points] they finished with because it’s all over the arena.

Shooting percentage, though, that’s a thing. Maybe sometimes after the game you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I shot this-for-this.’ There’s moments where you don’t realize something happened, but at the end of the day, you know what you had. There’s no way you didn’t find out.

But you’ve never been curious, maybe on an off day, to just Google yourself and find out how many assists you're averaging?

Nah, I’m not doing all that.

What about off the court? Do you have any goals for this year that aren’t necessarily basketball-related?

I’d say just being more involved in my community. This offseason I was able to do a lot more [to give back to people] at home. I held my first camp in Milwaukee, which I want to do again next year. I went to a couple schools, stuff like that, but definitely looking to do more when I find time. Camps are fun.

What are some areas that you’ve seen the WNBA get better at during your time in the league, and on the flip side, what are some things you’d like to see improve?

I think, definitely, more money. Salary-wise, that obviously needs to keep getting better. But a lot of people are getting more opportunities outside the basketball court. That’s something that’s grown from my first year to now.

You’ve made a name for yourself as one of the more fashionable players in the WNBA. Do you have a favorite tunnel fit from your career?

That’s a really good question. I gotta think on that. [20-second pause] Maybe my All-Star fit from 2022?

I had one of my best friends [Kristine Anigwe], she’s a designer, so she made me a little two-piece fit. It was pretty dope. Her line is called KA Originals. We met when we were 16, through USA Basketball.

You’ve talked about improvements you’ve made in basketball, and the improvements the league has made as a whole to address some of the inequality issues they’ve dealt with. But have you also noticed an improvement in your personal style?

My style…changes a lot. When I see pictures from my rookie year compared to now, it was a lot of street fashion. I’ve added a little bit more high fashion. Still street though, but now I’m a little more upper street.

I feel like that’s a universal experience: looking back at your old fits and realizing some of them were bricks.

[laughing] Oh, for sure!

Who are your style icons?

I think Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] has really good style. I like his style a lot. Designer-wise, I like Ferris. He makes a lot of graphic tees with Do Not Disturb. That’s my boy. There’s a lot of people I know outside of basketball who make clothes. But it varies. If you got good style—whether you’re famous or not—I’ll probably rock with it.

Who are some WNBA players who you feel like are always on point?

My teammate! Diamond DeShields has really good style. She’s always got some good stuff on. Diamond’s wearing No. 88 on her jersey this year. It’s different. [Washington Mystics guard] Shatori Walker-Kimbrough has lowkey style too. She doesn’t do too much. I like those two for sure.

Are there players around the league that you want to help out, fashion-wise?

I mean, there’s a lot of people. I’m definitely not going to say any names. I can’t do that to none of them. But…more than not.

I imagine it’s probably nice to have basketball as an outlet, too. When you don’t want to think about clothes, you can go hoop—you’re not just completely overwhelmed by the fashion world.

Facts. It can get stressful! When I’m finding clothes or putting an outfit together, I feel a little stressed. I couldn’t imagine trying to put fits together all day.

How many times do you think you’ve watched the video of your buzzer beater to win the national championship?

In the first two weeks, I watched it so many times. I would get tagged in it all the time, so I definitely watched it! I don’t know the number, but a lot.

Your coach, Muffet McGraw, said you were actually the second option on that play.

Yeah, it was supposed to go into the post. I was ready for it if it came to me, but it was a good play call. Their big post player had just fouled out and they put a freshman in, so it made sense to try and throw it into the post.

That year, you also hit a game-winning shot against UConn to advance to the national championship. When you got to the WNBA—which is full of UConn players—were they ever coming up to you like, ‘I was so mad at you for hitting that shot?’

Nah, I think fans care more than us. There’s no hard feelings.

Along with everything else you did, you were also on Dancing With The Stars in college. How did that all come together?

Our SID [sports information director] told me about it, and I didn’t have an agent or anything, so he just told me that Dancing With The Stars wanted me to do it. I was like, “Oh wow!” And at first I actually said no. But they said there would be a way for me to get paid from it—because obviously college kids weren’t making any money at that time—so as long as I could get paid, I say yes.

How did you feel about your dancing skills heading into that?

I can dance, but I wasn’t doing any sort of organized dancing. It was definitely tougher than I expected. We had to practice for three to four hours a day, and I was flying back-and-forth from LA because I was still in school. I’d be in LA from Friday to Monday, then take a red eye back to South Bend and go right back to class. It was a lot. My teammates thought it was funny, obviously.

You also had a pretty legendary youth soccer career. Do you think if you had focused on soccer you could have gone pro?

Umm, I don’t know! I was getting some letters from colleges. I was pretty good! I was a forward. I was a scorer. But, I just started liking basketball more, and I definitely wasn’t going to play two sports in college.

I saw on Instagram that you recently met Allen Iverson. What was that like?

It was dope! We were lit! I’m glad I met him. We were having a good time, talking basketball, having a couple drinks. I’m cool with this rapper named Sada Baby from Detroit. He’s cool with Allen, so they were all in the same section and he just told me to come over there. I was chillin’ with them for the rest of the night.

Originally Appeared on GQ