Sometimes a moment just calls for a happy dance. The grandmother of a college basketball star turned top 10 pick in the WNBA was evidence of that during the league’s draft on Thursday night.
Michaela Onyenwere, an All-American player of the UCLA Bruins, was selected by the New York Liberty with the No. 6 pick. While the accomplishment was Onyenwere’s dream come true, it was also incredibly important to her many family and friends who gathered (most wearing masks) to celebrate with her. Her mother had the chance during a post-selection interview on ESPN to shine literally, as she showed off a colorful jacket covered in stones. Then Onyenwere’s grandmother took her own moment, standing up in a traditional Nigerian ensemble complete with a gorgeous yellow wrapper and intricately tied gele, to say, “I’m grandma!” She followed that up by dancing joyfully, and not a simple two-step.
It would quickly become one of the highlights, if not the highlight of draft night on social media.
Social media couldn’t get enough of her, and neither could Onyenwere herself, who was as proud of her grandmother as grandma was of her.
“Hahahah, that’s my grandma for ya!” she wrote on Twitter. “Love her! I should have got up and did a little jig with her!”
Everyone would have understood if the 21-year-old opted to join in on the fun. The Colorado native is moving to NYC and will get to play in the Barclay’s Center alongside one of the league’s biggest burgeoning stars, Sabrina Ionescu, the 2020 No.1 draft pick of the Oregon Ducks.
“I’m just glad we’re on the same side now,” Onyenwere told ESPN during the broadcast of getting to team up with Ionescu. “I’m really excited to get started in New York.”
Grandma is certainly excited, too.