On the morning of the WNBA draft, Dominique Malonga stepped out onto the observatory deck of the Empire State Building, sporting a huge, winsome smile and a tiny camcorder in her hand. Against a canvas of groggy faces in matching hoodies, Malonga’s own bright face stood out. She and her fellow draft prospects were midway through a tiring multi-day circuit of media engagements and rookie orientation meetings. (At the draft that night, the writer Mel Greenberg called this procession “the car wash.”) So you could forgive them all for looking less than enthused to ceremonially “light” a building that would not actually be lit for many more hours because it was 9:00 a.m.
Maybe it was the smile that won me over. Maybe it was the tiny camcorder. Maybe I felt some extra affection on account of Malonga’s youth. International pros are subject to looser age restrictions than players drafted from the NCAA. At 19, the French center is one of the youngest members of this rookie class. Someone from the league’s in-house media staff asked Malonga a few questions about her game and her WNBA goals for a video. With the city skyline behind her, the 6-foot-6 Malonga spoke about her versatility and said she was most excited to discover American culture. (I have some bad news, Dominique.) She was then asked what she wanted fans to know about her. “That I’m, like, a smiley person,” she said—how else?—smiling.
Malonga was smiling bigger Monday night when the Seattle Storm drafted her second overall with the pick they received in January’s three-team Jewell Loyd-Kelsey Plum trade. When Seattle acquired the pick, consensus thought was that they’d draft point guard Olivia Miles to complement an already strong frontcourt of Ezi Magbegor and Nneka Ogwumike. But once Miles decided to return to college for another year, Malonga became the easy choice. The buzz around her was real enough that the Storm might have picked Malonga anyway.
The buzz tends to include the words “female Victor Wembanyama.” It’s an imprecise shorthand, mostly the product of commentators groping for something lanky and French. Malonga might move with the same eerie fluidity for her height, though she’s not quite the natural shooter at this point in her career. It’s hard to know what exactly the Storm's roster might look like after this year—most players in the league will hit unrestricted free agency next offseason. If the 6-foot-4 Magbegor sticks around, she and Malonga could form one of the more interesting defensive frontcourts in the league. The WNBA has a wealth of talent at power forward, but if you emerged from the bonkers Lynx-Liberty Finals with any rational takeaway, it was probably that it helps to have a rockstar at the four and one at the five.
Malonga seemed a little wearied by the Wemby comparison in the days leading up to the draft. “I mean, this nickname is sticking with me now, for a long, long time,” she said in an ESPN interview with Malika Andrews, adding that she wanted to “keep my own identity on the court.” Still, she was keen to represent the French new wave. Malonga began playing in the Ligue Féminine de Basketball when she was 15. This past summer, she played on the French national team that won silver at the Paris Olympics and nearly upset the U.S. in the gold medal game. She wore a Louis Vuitton suit and mentioned both Wembanyama and Zaccharie Risacher at her draft night press conference.
“It just shows that it’s not only men French players, it’s also women,” she said. “It's just French basketball in general. I’m so proud just to show that today French basketball is at a level that we have never seen.”
Earlier that night, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters that once the league negotiates its new collective bargaining agreement and completes this round of expansion, the next step is “to really make an impact globally.” Slowly, that’s happening. The Golden State Valkyries continued to assemble their mini United Nations by drafting Lithuanian teen Justė Jocytė with their first-round pick. Chicago made Slovenian Ajša Sivka the third international player drafted in the top 10.
For French players in particular, schedule conflicts and various WNBA and French federation restrictions have made WNBA participation a challenge. Take it from Gabby Williams, another French Seattleite. But when players fight for better pay in the next CBA, they’re also engaged in a fight to establish the WNBA as the best league in the world. If the league's about to enter a new global era, here’s a perfect face.
