[INSIDE LOOK: Elena Delle Donne wants to step up as role model].
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Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Elena Delle Donne became the most valuable player in the WNBA.
“It sounds pretty insane just hearing that”. We had so much fun this year.
New York finished the regular season with a franchise all-time best 23-11 record to secure the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2002 and the best overall record in the WNBA for the first time in franchise history.
Chicago Sky Pokey Chatman calls out to her team during the first…
“I’m always about improving, getting better and trying to be the best me I possibly can be every year”, she said. Delle Donne also was third in both rebounds (8.4) and blocks (2.06).
Her season featured two 40-point efforts. That set the tone for what kind of season it was going to be for Delle Donne, a 6-foot-5 guard/forward. “Of the eight teams remaining, you really could say that majority have a legitimate chance to win the title and it wouldn’t be shocking”.
She received 38 of the 39 first-place votes from a national media panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Tina Charles, the New York Liberty center who was 2012 MVP, was third with 181 points. Brittney Griner (70) was fourth in the voting, ahead of the Sparks’ Candace Parker (57).
As excited as Delle Donne was to win the award, she has loftier thoughts.
“WNBA championship is by far the biggest goal and the playoffs are starting tomorrow, so it’s right around the corner and that would by far be the most incredible thing to bring home to Chicago”.
Chicago faces Indiana in the opening round of the playoffs that begin Thursday night.
Delle Donne finally got the illness, which has no known cure, under control but in 2010 she said she “had a really bad relapse” and has been troubled by it ever since, causing the Delaware native to miss a chunk of last season, including the All-Star game. To commemorate the achievement, the Beaverton, Ore.-based athletic brand has released a sneaker inspired by Delle Donne. She recently won the WNBA’s Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award for the second consecutive year. The league donated $10,000 to Lyme Aid 4 Kids on her behalf.
During the broadcast, LeBron James tweeted his congratulations.
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“Elena is a very driven person”, Rhoads, who has treated Delle Donne for the past five years, said. “Damian Lillard and J.J. Watt also reached out to me”.
