The 18-year-old was chosen in 2nd position by the STORM of Seattle, during the draft of the North American basketball female championship.

The 18-year-old was chosen in 2nd position by the STORM of Seattle, during the draft of the North American basketball female championship.

A new tricolor prospect will join the United States. At 18, Dominique Malonga was chosen by The Seattle Storm franchise as a second choice of the WNBA draft (Women's NBA), held in New York on the night of Monday to Tuesday, April 15. Franceinfo: Sport takes you to discover the great hope of French basketball, silver medalist at the Paris Olympic Games last summer with the Bleues.

First Frenchwoman to succeed in a dunk in professional competition

This may be where his name has exceeded the basketball frame. On October 30, 2024, Dominique Malonga became the first French player to succeed in a dunk at the professional level, during a Eurocoupe match in Asvel against Limassol, at the Mado Bonnet gymnasium, after piercing an outdated Cypriot defense. A gesture around which she had been running for a long time, and which she reissued a few weeks later against the Poles of Gorzow.

“I felt that the room was waiting for it, I had already had 2-3 counterattacks before it, and I heard the audience shudder. So when I went, the whole room got up, it was a good time”had she enjoyed a few days later with France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. His gesture had been hailed by names of the discipline, Like Nicolas Batum.

A family of basketball players

Dominique Malonga has always bathed in basketball. His father, Thalence Malonga, represented the Congo and played at a high level, just like his mother, Agathe N’nindjem, former Cameroonian international, who notably evolved in Villeneuve d'Ascq. It is in her mother's academy that young Dominique started basketball in Yaoundé, where she was born.

“After school I was going to train at my mother's academy, who was professional”she remembered in November 2024 with France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. “Frankly I played because my parents were basketball players. It was a bit of the family sport, you had to go to basketball, it was like that.” His little brother Tayron, born in 2008, also plays basketball and has evolved in particular with the U15 Elite de l'Asvel.

Compared to Victor Wembanyama

By taking an interest in Dominique Malonga, hard not to think about the last big name in French basketball, Victor Wembanyama. The two tricolor phenomena share in particular a size that does not go unnoticed, with 1.98 meters for Dominique Malonga (and 2.21 meters for “Weby”). But also a remarkable precocity. The ASVEL player joined the France L'INP pole at 13, was recruited at 15 in the Lyon professional workforce, already has a title of champion of France and a Eurocoupe at her record. Last summer, she became the youngest French basketball player at 18 to play the Olympic Games.

Before the Games, she told the press how she found herself to play a game with Victor Wembanyama on a Parisian suburbs, when she was “11 or 12 years”: “I walk around and see boys playing, I say to myself, why not go.” LOrs of the NBA Paris Game and the arrival of Wembanyama in the capital, she had returned to these comparisons On the Bein Sport set : “It is an honor to be compared to Victor, compared to what he realizes who is really incredible. Physically there are a lot of similar things and each time I am told about it I try to make the parallel, but I want to be my own person and I really want to be known for me and what I do on the field.” They will now find themselves in the King country of discipline to make the colors of French basketball shine.