The draft is comparable to a scholarship of players who will start in the North American basketball league. During a specially dedicated evening, each team selects a player from the university or abroad. This is the case of Dominique Malonga.
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 only 19 years old, 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 the native of Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, on the Shed scene, the New York room where the draft was held, in English. “”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 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. “”WNBA is a dream. It’s been years that I have been watching and that I tell myself if I was there“Added Dominique Malonga during an interview with AFP in New York. “”I cherish this moment and I just look forward to going, playing, discovering this somewhat American craze that we know in the rooms“, She added, while the regular season starts in a month.
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Confident, Dominique Malonga is not afraid to compare himself to the best. “”When I see a’ja Wilson playing today, this is the kind of impact I want to haveOn the parquet floors, hopes the Frenchwoman, evoking the star of the Aces of Las Vegas, designated “MVP” of the 2024 season unanimously. 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 willingly resume the 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 players most in sight, the image of the American 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. With Clark as the head of the gondola, and an epic final won at the five matches by the Liberty against the Lynx of Minnesota, the North American championship comes from a 2024 historic season in terms of audiences (+170% on ESPN) and spectators (+48%), which allowed it to renegotiate its TV rights clearly up, with a record contract of at least 2.2 billion Dollars over 11 years (1.94 billion euros) from 2026.
