The Frenchman Dominique Malonga was selected by the STORM of Seattle in second position of the draft of the North American female WNBA basketball championship WNBA on Monday evening in New York, the best ranking in history for a Habs.
At 19, the pivot (1.98 m) from ASVEL, Olympic silver medalist last summer with France, was chosen just behind the new American basketball star Paige Bueckers, 23, drafted in first position by the Dallas wings.
No Frenchwoman had been classified as well since Isabelle Fijalkowski in 1997, but it was at the time in a scholarship reserved for professional players, when the WNBA had just been born.
“I am so proud to be there”launched in English the native of Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, on the stage of the Shed, the New York hall where the draft was held. “My family is there, they know all the work it took to get there”she added. She paid tribute to her clubs, Tarbes and Asvel, and also praised her fans “In Cameroon and Congo”.
Dominique Malonga joins a dozen other compatriots like Marine Johannès, who re-signed with the defending champions of the New York Liberty, or his future teammate at the STORM in Seattle, the Ailière des Bleues Gabby Williams.
Premier dunk
Promise to a brilliant future since its professional debut in October 2021, one month before his 16 years, Dominique Malonga is released from a convincing regular season with ASVEL (17 pts and 10.6 rebounds on average per match, championship and Eurocoupe combined). She also distinguished herself by becoming the first Frenchwoman in Dunker in an official match (October 30 in Eurocoupe).
A performance that has not gone unnoticed in the United States, where observers readily resume comparison with Victor Wembanyama, another very mobile and very large precocity phenomenon, chosen in number 1 by the San Antonio Spurs during the Draft NBA 2023.
Dominique Malonga arrives in a championship in full renewal, where the most prominent players, like the Americans Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and soon Paige Bueckers are icons that count their subscribers on social networks in millions.
The WNBA has progressed for several years with a new generation of players (Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu) but really exploded in 2024 with the arrival of Caitlin Clark, which loves new fans with its spectacular game of blind passes and three -point surgical precision.
“When I see A’ja Wilson playing today, this is the kind of impact I want to have” On the prosecution, hoped for the French, evoking the star of the Aces of Las Vegas.
The WNBA comes out of a historic season in terms of hearings (+170% on ESPN) and spectators (+48%), which enabled it to renegotiate its clearly upwards, with a record contract of at least 2.2 billion dollars over 11 years (1.94 billion euros) from 2026.
