Dominique Malonga loves the first. In October, the slender player (1m98) became the first Frenchman to slam a dunk in the official match-succeeding in passing the ball over the hoop, perched at 3m05 high, is very rare among the women. During the night of Monday to Tuesday, April 15, it was in the United States that it marked the history of tricolor basketball by being selected in second position from the WNBA Draft (the American Women’s Basketball championship) by the Seattle Storm. Never has a Frenchwoman were chosen so high in this annual high mass where the teams each draw their turn from the best young players on the planet.
“I am so proud to be there”launched in English the native of Yaoundé, 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”added the one who arrived in France for her entry into college. Dominique Malonga also paid tribute to his clubs, Tarbes and Asvel (Lyon), and praised his fans “In Cameroon and Congo”.
At only 19 years old, the interior that plays this season at ASVEL this season, Olympic silver medalist last summer with France, was chosen just behind the new American basketball star Bueckers, 23, drafted in first position by the Dallas wings. Dominique Malonga joins in WNBA a dozen compatriots like Marine Johannès, who re-signed with the defending champions of the New York Liberty, or his future teammate at the Storm of Seattle, the Ailière des Bleues Gabby Williams. Another Frenchwoman selected Monday, Adja Kane, who plays with Landerneau, was chosen by Liberty in 38th position.
-Promise to a brilliant future since its professional beginnings in October 2021, one month from his 16th birthday, Dominique Malonga is released from a convincing regular season with ASVEL (17 points and 10.6 rebounds on average per game, championship and Eurocoupe combined). His Dunk, October 30 in Eurocoupe, had helped to raise his rating in the United States, where observers regularly compare it with Victor Wembanyama, another phenomenon of French precocity, very large and very mobile.
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 in millions of their subscribers on social networks. 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.
With Clark as the head of the gondola, and an epic final won at the Five games by the Liberty against the Lynx of Minnesota, the North American championship comes from a 2024 historic season in terms of hearings (+ 170 % on ESPN) and spectators (+ 48 %), which allowed him to renegotiate his TV rights clearly up, with a record contract at least 2.2 billion Dollars over eleven years (1.94 billion euros) from 2026.
