SportsAsToldByAGirl Spotlight: Elena Delle Donne

Photo Credit: Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images

With the NBA Finals going on, it’s a little difficult to pinpoint someone to spotlight. There are a lot of contenders definitely, but the WNBA has some of the best basketball players too. While the world is focusing on the Cavs and the Warriors, this week’s spotlight will be Elena Delle Donne, a WNBA player. Donne is one of the best women playing the game right now, an ambassador for the Special Olympics and isn’t afraid to speak her mind on important topics.

Donne’s basketball career kickstarted in high school. She led her school to three State Championship, was the number one ranked recruit and the only student to score over 2,000 points in her career. In 2007, she was selected to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American team and played in their High School All-American game where she was named MVP. Donne also played volleyball during her high school career and helped the team win a State Championship in 2007 also.

Donne had an interesting college career. At first, she committed to the University of Connecticut, but left their summer program after two days. She was not yet ready to be separated from her family who still lived in Delaware, most notably her sister. Donne gave up her scholarship to UConn to take a short personal break, much like she did her senior year of high school. After her break, Donne decided to play volleyball for the University of Delaware in order to stay closer to home.

She began playing volleyball there in 2009 and announced that summer that she would play basketball the upcoming season. Her freshman year was stellar with Donne named CAA Rookie Of The Week six times, won the CAA Rookie Of The Year award and Player Of The Year award. Her sophomore year was a little bit more complicated as Donne began experiencing flu-like symptom and even asked to be taken out of a game. The doctors would later confirm that Donne had Lyme Disease’s which she played with for the entire season.

Donne’s best year was arguably her junior year. She finished out the season with a career high of 28.1 points per game, earned her 2,000 career points and led the team to the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament where the team eventually lost in the first round. Her senior year, Donne would once again battle Lyme’s Disease, but she battled and had five games where she scored more than 30 points.

After her senior year, she entered the WNBA draft. She was drafted number two overall in 2013 by the Chicago Sky and scored 22 points in her first professional game. In the 2013 season, she played in the WNBA All-Star Game and won the 2013 Rookie Of The Year Award along with being named to the All-WNBA Second team. In 2014, her Lyme’s Disease would flare up again which limited her playing time to 16 games, but she helped take the Sky to the playoffs. In 2015, she had one of her best professional seasons. She scored 23.5 points per game, shot 95% from the free-throw line and was named the league MVP that same year. She will be making her Olympic debut this year at Rio.

In 2014, she was named a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics. Her involvement with the Special Olympics is due to her relationship with her sister, Lizzie. Lizzie was born deaf and blind along with suffering from cerebral palsy and autism. Lizzie is the reason why Donne decided not to attend UConn and why she works so closely with Special Olympics. Donne definitely transcends what it means to be an athlete and with her recent takedown of a comedian who used the “r-word”, she’s one of the few who truly stands for what she believes in.