Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 16, 2026

Temi Fagbenle

Tèmítọ́pẹ́ Títílọlá "Temi" Fágbénlé is an American-born Nigerian-British professional basketball player who has, most recently, featured for the Toronto Tempo of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Chinese League side Henan. She has represented the Great Britain women's team since 2012, making her competitive debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

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Jul 16, 2026
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Temi Fagbenle
Fagbenle with Beşiktaş in 2024
No. 14 – Toronto Tempo
PositionForward
LeagueWNBA
Personal information
Born (1992-09-08) 8 September 1992
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school
College
WNBA draft2016: 3rd round, 35th overall pick
Drafted byMinnesota Lynx
Playing career2017–present
Career history
2017–2019Minnesota Lynx
2017–2019CCC Polkowice
2019BOTAŞ
2019–2020Perfumerías Avenida
2020–2021Reyer Venezia
2021–2022Çukurova Basketbol
2022–2023ZVVZ USK Praha
2023–2024London Lions
2024Indiana Fever
2024–2025Beşiktaş
2025Golden State Valkyries
2026–presentLunar Owls BC
2026–presentToronto Tempo
Career highlights
Stats at Basketball Reference 
Fagbenle in 2019 source ↗

Tèmítọ́pẹ́ Títílọlá "Temi" Fágbénlé (born 8 September 1992) is an American-born Nigerian-British professional basketball player who has, most recently, featured for the Toronto Tempo of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Chinese League side Henan. She has represented the Great Britain women's team since 2012, making her competitive debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics.


High school career

Smiling Fagbenle dancing with young girl fan
Fagbenle dancing with a fan in 2017 source ↗

During her time at Blair Academy, Fagbenle was voted on to the McDonald's All American High School team.1

Professional career

Fagbenle has spent much of her professional career competing in major European leagues, as well as participating in North American leagues during WNBA seasons.

She has won national championships in Italy, Czechia, Poland, USA and the UK as well as the EuroCup in 2024 with the London Lions.

Her maiden regular season stint was spent with Polish and EuroLeague side Polkowice, claiming back-to-back domestic league titles and earning league MVP honours in 2019. She split the following campaign between Turkey and Spain, landing the Spanish Cup with CB Avenida Salamanca, and then lifting the Italian Lega Basket Femminile crown with Venezia in 2021.

Fagbenle secured the Turkish Cup with Mersin the following campaign, the Czech League title with USK Praha in 2023 and then returned to the UK for a one-season stint for 2023-24 with the London Lions.

In her home city, she was the league MVP as part of the Lions team which landed all four major domestic trophies in the WBBL - and became the first British team to win a European prize by defeating Besiktas in the final 2, averaging 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds across the campaign.

She joined Besiktas in 2024 before a short spell in China with Henan, spending her 2026 regular season in the USA with the Lunar Owls BC of the Unrivaled league.


WNBA

Minnesota Lynx (2017–2019)

In her WNBA rookie season in 2017, she won the WNBA championship as a member of the Minnesota Lynx, 3 becoming the first British player to win the title.


Indiana Fever (2024)

In January 2024, Fagbenle was signed by the Indiana Fever to a training camp contract.4 She made the final roster and appeared in the first eight regular season games (24 minutes / 9.1 points / 5.6 rebounds) during the first month of the season for the Fever before suffering a left foot injury.5 Fagbenle played a valuable role in transition, often able to get down court rapidly ahead of the opposing team to catch Caitlin Clark's cross-court passes in transition for a basket and score. However, injuries to her thumb, shoulder, and foot limited her to just 22 regular-season games.6

Golden State Valkyries (2025–2026)

On December 6, 2024, Fagbenle was selected as the Golden State Valkyries' pick from the Indiana Fever's roster in the 2024 WNBA expansion draft.7

Toronto Tempo (2026–present)

On April 14, 2026, she signed with the Toronto Tempo ahead of the 2026 WNBA season.8

International career

She has represented Great Britain since 2012 having represented the country at the under-16, 18 and 20 levels and competing at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship held in Serbia.9

She was named in the British team for the women's basketball tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, having been fast-tracked into the senior side from the under-20s.10 She averaged 4.8 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.2 blocks, and 1 steal in 19.2 minutes per game. GB went 0-5 and failed to qualify from their group.11

Her selection for the Olympics came after a 12-month period in which she was unable to play for the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) declaring her ineligible.9 Fagbenle had taken the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam whilst at school in the UK and NCAA rules say that an athlete must be enrolled in college within two years of sitting for the exam; Fagbenle took an additional year to graduate from high school because she repeated a year after moving to the United States.12

Since her debut, Fagbenle has represented Great Britain at several major FIBA tournaments 13 including the 2015, 2023 and 2025 Women's EuroBasket finals and the 2020 Olympic qualification tournament.

She was a key part of the GB team which reached the semi-finals of the 2019 EuroBasket, averaging a tournament-best 20.9 points and earning selection for the All-Star Five team of the tournament 14.

Since 2025, she has been Great Britain's captain.

Personal life

Fagbenle was born on 8 September 1992 to a Nigerian family in Baltimore, Maryland, and has eleven siblings, including actor O-T Fagbenle, film producer Luti Fagbenle, and video producer Oladapo 'Daps' Fagbenle.151617181919

Her family moved to London, United Kingdom when she was aged 2 and she began playing basketball at the Haringey Angels club.20

When she was 15, she returned to the United States to study at Blair Academy in New Jersey.1 She attended Harvard University before transferring to the University of Southern California for her final year of NCAA basketball.9 As of 2012 she was 1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in) tall and weighed 79.5 kilograms (175 lb).18

An Ivy League graduate, Fagbenle has spent time as a model and has, amid basketball, followed her siblings into acting with a role in the Paramount Pictures film adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone 21.


WNBA statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader
† Denotes seasons in which Fagbenle won a WNBA championship

WNBA

Regular season

Stats current through end of 2025 season.

WNBA regular season statistics22
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2016 Did not play (continuing education)
2017† Minnesota 21 0 4.2 .500 — .778 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.4 1.2
2018 Minnesota 30 2 9.4 .506 — .696 2.0 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.7 3.1
2019 Minnesota 18 0 15.1 .519 .167 .722 2.9 0.8 0.3 0.3 1.8 5.4
2020 Did not appear in WNBA
2021
2022
2023
2024 Indiana 22 2 18.9 .509 .167 .786 4.7 0.9 0.5 0.7 1.2 6.4
2025 Golden State 39 38 23.7 .502 .194 .733 4.9 1.6 0.9 0.6 1.5 7.4
Career 5 years, 3 teams 130 42 15.3 .506 .188 .737 3.3 0.9 0.5 0.4 1.1 5.0

Playoffs

Temi Fagbenle WNBA Playoff Statistics
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2017† Minnesota 2 0 2.0 .667 .000 .000 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0
2018 Minnesota 1 0 24.0 .875 1.000 .000 4.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 15.0
2019 Minnesota 1 0 16.0 .500 .000 .000 1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 4.0
2024 Indiana 2 1 24.0 .444 .500 .000 5.5 2.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 4.5
2025 Golden State 1 1 20.0 .625 .000 .500 3.0 3.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 12.0
Career 5 years, 3 teams 7 2 16.0 .625 .500 .500 2.9 1.1 0.4 0.3 0.3 6.3

College

Temi Fagbenle NCAA Statistics2324
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2012–13 Harvard 29 28 25.0 .578 .667 .684 7.7 1.1 1.0 1.3 2.8 12.3
2013–14 Harvard 30 30 25.7 .539 .286 .705 9.3 1.7 0.8 1.4 2.6 13.0
2014–15 Harvard 27 27 29.4 .490 .250 .773 10.1 2.0 1.2 1.0 3.0 14.3
2015–16 Southern California 32 32 30.3 .514 .250 .705 8.7 1.3 1.8 1.2 2.1 13.6
Career 118 117 27.6 .526 .393 .722 8.9 1.5 1.2 1.2 2.6 13.3
References

References

  1. Gallagher, Brendan (31 May 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle to take centre stage for British team after being fast-tracked from juniors". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  2. "Lions prevail in the EuroCup Women final". Hoopsfix. 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  3. "Temi becomes the first British player to win WNBA title". Hoopsfix. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  4. Yapkowitz, David (19 January 2024). "Fever sign key role player ahead of WNBA Free Agency". ClutchPoints. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  5. Peterson, Chloe (25 June 2024). "Temi Fagbenle gave Fever 'a spark' before her injury. She's back, ready to give more". The Indianapolis Star. Archived from the original on 25 June 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  6. Peterson, Cloe (20 October 2024). "Fever have tough decisions on who to protect". The Indianapolis Star. No. 102, Vol. 102. Indianapolis, Indiana: Gannett. p. B11. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
  7. Henderson, Cydney; Horrow, Ellen J. (6 December 2024). "WNBA expansion draft live updates: Golden State Valkyries pick their players for 2025". USA Today. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  8. "Toronto Tempo Sign Temi Fágbénlé". tempo.wnba.com. 14 April 2026. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  9. McCluskey, Jack (25 July 2012). "Temi Fagbenle on English holiday". ESPN Boston. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  10. Telegraph Staff (22 June 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle in Team GB women's basketball squad". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  11. "Temi Fagbenle's profile - 2012 Olympic Women". FIBA. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  12. Nocera, Joe (27 January 2012). "Et Tu, Harvard?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  13. "FIBA.com: Temi Fagbenle profile".
  14. "GB fall to France in Euro semis".
  15. "Temi Fagbenle". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022.
  16. Fagbenle, Temi (7 July 2012). "Passions: Basketball star loves to tread the boards" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  17. "Temi Fagbenle has many ambitions, and one is to play for the Lynx". Star Tribune. 4 May 2017. Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  18. "Temi Fagbenle". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  19. Henson, Mike (4 February 2020). "Haringey, Harvard & Hollywood: The fabulous Temi Fagbenle and family". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  20. "The fabulous Miss Fagbenle & family". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  21. "Film debut for Fagbenle". ESPN. 8 March 2025. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  22. "Temi Fagbenle WNBA Stats". Basketball Reference.
  23. "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  24. "Temi Fagbenle College Stats". Sports Reference. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
External links