“It’s been an incredible season, my teammates are the ones that have the credit, the coaches as well”.
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Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Elena Delle Donne became the most valuable player in the WNBA.
Chicago (21-13), the No. 2 seed out of the Eastern Conference, will open the first round of the playoffs at home Thursday night against third seed Indiana.
New York’s Tina Charles finished third. During an early stretch when the Fever faced the Sky three times in June, Indiana struggled to a 3-6 record.
The numbers say she succeeded. While leading the league in scoring at 23.4 points per game, she also averaged 8.4 rebounds and shot an astounding 95% from the free throw line.
“Pokey can look at me in the morning and tell how I’m doing”, Delle Donne, the league’s top scorer, said.
“I feel like I have really gotten a pretty good grip on it”, she said. “We’ve had so much fun this year, it’s been surreal, and we just want to keep it going”. The also had the fewest turnovers (411) in league history. Parker returned for the second half of the season for LA and averaged a double-double in her 16 games. She has been part of the USA player pool through recent camps with another upcoming before final player selections next spring. She later chose to attend Delaware and took a year away from basketball. “But it’s still a day-to-day process with her”, Chatman said. “This is the path that never existed”.
National Basketball Association superstar LeBron James tweeted at Delle Donne after it was announced she won. As she settled back into her hometown of Chicago, Pondexter brought with her experience and veteran leadership to an up-and-coming Sky team. She was then the second pick in the 2013 WNBA draft after Griner.
Delle Donne sees Pennsylvania-based nurse practitioner Rita Rhoads every week during the offseason to make sure her blood tests are satisfactory.
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The 6-5 Delle Donne, who WNBA watchers compare to Kevin Durant or Dirk Nowitzki, was once thought of as the Bill Walton or Lew Alcindor of UConn women’s basketball-the next great, untouchable star to suit up for the sport’s biggest dynasty.
