PARIS — Dominique Malonga has a long-term plan. She intends to play professional basketball for the next 10 to 15 years, and when she’s done, she wants to do something else completely.
For now, she believes it will be related to technology. She is an intellectual at heart. Malonga said that when she was younger — a relative statement, she’s now 19 — she was a “nerd.” She loved to read and to go to school.
Malonga still does, but her interests have become hobbies. She is studying engineering and computing, and learning to code, first Python and then JavaScript, and can build QR codes; she finds time for it on long bus rides across France as ASVEL, her basketball team, shuttles around the country for games. While she had one day hoped to use her brain and her game to earn a college scholarship in the U.S. at a school that would let her harness her talents in both areas, that has gone by the wayside.
Instead, she is ready to come to America with a bigger dream. This month, Malonga, a 6-foot-6 center, will likely be one of the top picks in the WNBA Draft.
At home, she has already drawn comparisons to Victor Wembanyama because of her rare combination of size and skill and her French roots. While she has gone viral for her in-game dunks, some league executives think she could end up being the best player in her class because she has a fluidity of movement that could make her the WNBA’s next dominant center.
“She’s a player that we just really haven’t seen before,” one GM said.
SHUT IT DOWN. NOW. 🤯
DOMINIQUE MALONGA WITH THE DUNK 🔥🔥🔥#EuroCupWomen x @ASVEL_Feminin pic.twitter.com/PkNtecD9Oe
— EuroCup Women (@EuroCupWomen) October 30, 2024
In early April, the decision by Olivia Miles (the Notre Dame star who has since transferred to TCU) to remain in college for another year put Malonga in the spotlight. She has become the presumptive No. 2 pick, where the Seattle Storm would select her.
One league executive said Malonga’s talent is comparable to presumptive No. 1 pick, UConn star Paige Bueckers, even if her public profile isn’t. In a league where box office still matters, that does too at the top of the draft, the executive said.
Still, Malonga believes she has a case to go No. 1.
“I know that people say the first pick is locked for Paige Bueckers,” Malonga told The Athletic. “But I have hope.”
In January, Malonga sat in a conference room on the penthouse floor of a building just off the Champs-Élysées as she considered her future. She had come to Nike’s Paris headquarters for a small ceremony. Her French jersey hung off a mannequin in the center of the room, and the warm winter light peeked through the floor-to-ceiling windows. She had a business relationship with the company already, but on this day, she signed her new contract with Jordan Brand.
Malonga has been a pro since she was 15, when she signed her first contract with the Lyon club. She was born in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, and lived there until she was 10. She dabbled with the sport there, but she sprouted when she moved to Paris. Her father was a doctor, but he and her mom were also former centers, and height ran in the family.
Malonga’s career took a new trajectory in 2021 when she left INSEP, France’s famed national sports academy, and signed with ASVEL. Tony Parker, the club’s owner, called her “the female version of Victor Wembanyama,” the then-future NBA star who was already a budding sensation.
The confluence of their lives has added to the easy pairing of two young French up-and-comers. Malonga and Wembanya both grew up in Nanterre, a Paris suburb, and would sometimes play on the same city court and in the same tournaments.
Though the comparison has stuck, Malonga has not invited it. In France, Wembanyama is already a national treasure, and although the comparison is meant as a compliment, Malonga is clear that she intends to forge her own path.
“It’s an honor to be compared to him,” Malonga said. “But I believe that every time people talk to me about that, I really highlight the fact that we are two separate people. Maybe we can be similar physically. We really have two different games. He’s amazing at what he does, and I really want to be known as Dominique. I play as Dominique.
“I don’t play as Victor or anybody else. So it’s not that I don’t like the comparison. The comparison is just that I really want people to understand that I am me, and I want to be known as me. About the pressure, it can be pressure sometimes, but at the end of the day, I have a lot of things that put pressure on me. I choose the way I want to have my pressure. That one is the lowest.”
Malonga’s game, even as a teenager, already speaks for itself. There is the above-the-rim component, of course. That’s what draws Instagram reels and headlines. She has been dunking since she was 15. The first time, Malonga said, was when she grabbed the ball after practice and barely cleared the rim. Now, she slams in games.
That is just the superficial layer of what makes her so appealing as a prospect. WNBA executives are intrigued because of her athleticism and nimbleness at her size. One compared her to a longer Shakira Austin, the Washington Mystics’ 6-5 forward. Another said her talent level is comparable to Bueckers, a 6-foot guard.
Malonga is averaging 14.9 points and 10.4 rebounds this season as a teenager in France’s top basketball league, after she made the French national team for the Olympics. She has shown a deft touch with the ball and an ability to play in the pick-and-roll. She has taken just 35 3s in 21 games with Lyon this season, but she said she can play on the perimeter, too. She also has a wingspan that stretches just over 7 feet, and she has the quick feet to defend the rim and out in space.
“For now, people talk about me because of the dunk, but I assure you I can do more,” Malonga said. “I really can run, can jump, can cover space on the court, on offense and defense. I’m very tall, and a big wingspan, so I can be a real threat on defense and on offense. I can run the floor like a huge rim runner. I can really stretch the floor, because I can play inside and outside. I think it’s the most interesting part. I can stretch the floor. I can play like an outside player. I can drive, I can shoot the ball and have kind of soft touch in the rim. So, yeah, I think I’m a complete player.”
Malonga grew up watching and emulating Breanna Stewart and Candace Parker, and, more recently, A’ja Wilson, all two-way players who married size and preternatural scoring prowess. Soon, she will join them in the WNBA, and at a time when the league is lifting off.
It is just the right moment, she believes. Despite Malonga’s talent, one league executive pointed to the skepticism that some foreign players face entering the league. Those players, the executive said, are not appreciated in full, and more risk is attached to taking them early in the draft. Teams have concerns about getting them to commit to the WNBA over international teams, despite the prioritization rule, and they’re also cognizant of marketing challenges with them compared to players produced by prominent American college programs.
Only one player who did not come from the NCAA system has been taken in the top eight over the last three drafts — Finnish forward Awak Kuier went No. 2 in 2021, but she has prioritized overseas commitments and opted out of the WNBA the last two seasons.
Malonga is also likely to go at No. 2 in Monday’s draft. She intends to play in the WNBA this season, despite the French national team commitments that could sideline her this summer. She is at the vanguard of the wave of French players coming to the WNBA. Four have been taken in the first round over the last four drafts. Malonga may break new ground and end up being the best of them.
“I think (this) is the best time to enter the league for me, because it’s blowing up,” Malonga said. “People really are into female sports, and that’s great. And so, I’m like, can’t wait to make my impact entering the league and show the world that things are not happening only in America. In France and in Europe, there are some great talents that came to show us that it is not only about America. So that’s, I think, my goal. Enter the league and really have a great impact to show people that the talent is worldwide.”
(Photo: Antonin Thuillier / Pool via Getty Images)
