FRANCE, — Ezi Magbegor is playing the best basketball of her life.
Magbegor was an All-Star in 2023 and has been named to the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) All-Defensive team twice in her career.
But years before Magbegor became an important player for the Seattle Storm, she grew up playing basketball in Australia. In 2016 she led the Aussie's under-17 team to a World Championship. That was the first team to beat the United States in the tournament's history.
"That was obviously a huge achievement," Magbegor said. "The USA are a great team. They're hard to beat."
After the win many started to compare Magbegor to the greatest player to ever come out of Australia, Storm legend Lauren Jackson. In 2020 Magbegor helped Seattle win a title and a year later she would play in her first Olympic games.
"It's pretty special, especially the first one, just receiving that phone call and 2021 to go to Tokyo I was in tears and immediately also I called my mom and dad and told them and I think, you know, the Olympics is the pinnacle of I feel everyone's career," Magbegor said. "Well, my (is) career official. So I definitely wanted to be an Olympian.
It means a lot. I think just being able to represent yourself, your family. A whole nation. That's pretty incredible so whenever I put on the green and gold I definitely wear it with honor with pride and just represent everyone that helped has helped me get there."
The Australian women's team has medaled in five Olympics, but this could be their best team ever. The Opals have six WNBA players on their roster, including Magbegor's teammate and good friend Sami Whitcomb.
"I just love Sami," Magbegor said. "She's just great obviously as a person as a player, she's just, you know, we talked about it. She's just the utmost professional. She works hard. She's, you know, always in the gym. First first person in the gym just working on her game working on her strength and conditioning. She's a big part of Australian basketball, and she can get some buckets too. Yes, she can."
In Paris, Magbegor will be wearing green and gold representing Australia, but she said she'll also be repping all the Storm fans.
"Seattle is my second home and the fans just continue to show up for you know me but the team day in and day out, no matter wins or losses," Magbegor said. "So yeah, I'll definitely be representing the Storm fans out there too."