Nneka Ogwumike is speaking from her hotel room in Boston over Zoom, preparing for one of the biggest moments of her career: in two days, she will announce her retirement from the WNBA.

“I feel good,” she says. “I don’t know if excited is the right word, but I feel good.”

Ogwumike, 36, was the league’s No. 1 draft pick in 2012 and is now in her 15th season. She may not be as widely recognized outside basketball as some of the league’s younger stars, but she has spent the past 15 years as one of its premier players: an 11-time All-Star, the second-most in league history, as well as the 2016 MVP and a league champion with the Los Angeles Sparks. She comes from a basketball family. Her sister Chiney Ogwumike also played for the Sparks and later became a prominent ESPN broadcaster, while sisters Erica and Olivia played in college and represented Nigeria internationally.

Her legacy, however, will be defined as much by what she did off the court as by what she accomplished on it. In 2016, Ogwumike became president of the players’ union, the WNBPA. She led the union through the 2020 collective bargaining agreement, which included historic protections such as parental leave. This year, she was called on to do it again.

The WNBA has experienced historic growth since the arrival of the 2024 rookie class that included Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, but player compensation did not keep pace. Record ticket sales and television viewership were accompanied by rising frustration among players and fans over salaries; Clark’s rookie pay, for example, was $76,000.

Ogwumike was the person expected to channel that frustration into leverage. As union president, she had to unite a membership that ranged from veterans who had spent years earning five-figure salaries to 22-year-old NIL millionaires and bring them together into a negotiating bloc capable of taking on the WNBA and the NBA, which owns much of the league. The effort was not always smooth. At one point, stars Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum sent a letter raising concerns about the union’s handling of the negotiations. Still, the outcome was a landmark labor agreement that mattered beyond women’s basketball.

With support from allies including Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin, WNBA players secured a 364% raise, the largest increase in the history of U.S. professional sports. The average player this season is earning $564,000, and WNBA players are now the highest-paid athletes in women’s team sports.

“It took a lot,” Ogwumike says. She had to compete on the court while serving as a labor leader off it. “I had to manage people not seeing me as president while I’m on the court.” The process also came with difficult stretches, including a six-week stretch when the union did not hear back from the league and late-night negotiations in New York that ended in the “wee hours of the morning” before players had to return to training the next day.

During this year’s training camp, her first back with the Sparks after a two-year stint with the Seattle Storm, Ogwumike decided it was time to step back. “I was just thinking about how much this league has grown and the demand on players as it continues to grow,” she recalls. She has played through some of the league’s lowest moments, including periods when games were rarely televised and the near-collapse of the league during the pandemic. “Even though I know I’m up for the challenge, I wasn’t sure I needed to do it for longer than another year.”

Players respect Ogwumike and, amid frustration with league leadership, have at times referred to her as their own “commiss.” Ogwumike has previously said she was interested in working in the league office and believes more former players should be part of the league’s leadership.

Now that such a transition feels closer, she is less certain. In the near term, she plans to divide her time between Houston and Los Angeles and enjoy control over her own schedule for the first time in 15 years. She has also signed on to play for Project B, a soon-to-launch international league that says it aims to extend the careers of star players, men and women, through exhibition games around the world. When asked about a possible role in the league office, she says, “I don’t close doors.”

Still, Ogwumike is careful not to assume that an executive position would simply be offered to her. “I’m not assuming that it’s just going to be a role that is made available or that is given,” she says. “I don’t feel as though today I am completely qualified for any type of executive role.”

Anyone who watched the WNBA’s tense negotiations, however, can see the skills the union president gained: managing complex stakeholders, understanding the details of the league’s business, communicating clearly and negotiating under pressure. For a league still balancing rapid growth with the expectations that come with it, the bargaining table has become as central to its future as the court.

Ogwumike says she learned that leadership can be “a little less tumultuous” when you “provide an environment for everyone to share their thoughts.” As president, she tried to be accessible and communicative, while also understanding where players were coming from. “Everyone just has different lived experiences,” she says.

The unpredictability of negotiations also made her a little less Type A. “Being adaptable is incredibly important,” she says.

She is announcing her retirement during a rocky moment for the WNBA. The league continues to sell out games and attract strong television audiences, but its season has also been overshadowed by a broader culture-war fight. After Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham said she opposes the inclusion of trans women and girls in women’s and girls’ sports, the issue took over the WNBA news cycle, even though the league has no actual eligibility questions in the near future, and drew right-wing commentary. Fans have been showing up at games in shirts supporting trans women, as well as shirts from the XX-XY brand, which is built around excluding trans girls from girls’ sports. “I think ultimately there’s too much good and too much excitement happening in the league for it to be swallowed up by the noise,” Ogwumike says.

Ogwumike spent tense days across the negotiating table from league executives, including WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Engelbert also acknowledged Ogwumike’s impact: “Nneka will retire at the end of this season,” she said, “leaving the WNBA much better than she found it.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com