Big basketball year for Elena Delle Donne includes stop at Delaware

Now that Elena Delle Donne plays for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics after four seasons with the Chicago Sky, it’s quite common for her to peek into the stands at home games and see fans wearing Delaware gear.

“There’s always some royal blue in the stands,” she said.

On Saturday night, Delle Donne practically had a roomful of Delaware fans, though many were decked out in Mystics red this time, some bearing her No. 11, for a preseason game against the Indiana Fever.

In her fifth post-collegiate homecoming game at the Carpenter Center – but her first with the Mystics – Delle Donne remained a popular attraction, as she has been since first visiting the arena as an Ursuline Academy eighth-grader in 2004 and winning the first of her four state high school titles.

Since beating North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament in her final University of Delaware game here in 2013, Delle Donne had returned four times before Saturday. The first three were with the Sky, who chose her second overall in the 2013 WNBA draft.

Her most recent visit was in July of 2016, when Delle Donne, decked out in her USA gear, was part of an 84-62 exhibition win over France in front of a sellout crowd of 4,711 in an Olympic tune-up. Delle Donne and her U.S. teammates won the gold medal several weeks later in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, beating Spain.

“I came because I wanted to see Elena play where she played in college,” said Hollin Horn, 9, who drove up from Virginia with her mother, Jill. “I thought it would be an experience.”

This is a big year for the 28-year-old Delle Donne, in a much different way than 2017 was.

Last year, she helped engineer the trade to Washington so she could play basketball closer to home, wrote two recently published books and married Amanda Clifton. Their Nov. 3 nuptials were orchestrated by the Knot, a wedding service company.

“I think my life will actually get a lot more simple now that I’m in season,” Delle Donne said, “which is crazy to think … I can settle in a little bit more.”

Basketball will take center stage over the next five months, first with the WNBA season and then with the FIBA Women’s World Cup of basketball Sept. 22-30 on the Canary Islands.

Delle Done has had surgery on both thumbs the past two years – it was a torn ligament in her left thumb that sidelined her for several weeks late last season – but knows those are the hazards of her job, especially with the avid defense she draws.

“Championships,” Delle Donne said of what motivates her as the 2018 season approaches. “I feel I’ve accomplished a lot in my WNBA career, but I haven’t got a championship. I feel like last season we peaked at the right time and played really well and got far in the playoffs, falling to Minnesota, who won it all.

“Obviously, now we’re just trying to make that next step and moving forward, which is never easy. It’s gonna take a lot, especially this season with Emma [Meesseman] being out [the 6-4 Belgian is taking a season off after playing year-round for six years]. That hurts us. But we’ve got a great lineup. It’s the best training camp I’ve been in so far, and it seems like things are going in the right direction.”

Delle Donne was league rookie of the year with Chicago in 2013 and MVP in 2015.

With Washington, the 6-foot-5 guard/forward averaged 19.7 points and 6.8 rebounds last season with career-best 49.4 field-goal and 95.3 free-throw percentages.

Washington won two games in the WNBA’s new single-elimination playoff format but was swept by eventual champ Minnesota in the best-of-five semifinals. The Mystics' 2018 regular season opens May 20 against Indiana.

“It’s been awesome,” she said of playing in Washington. “Basketball-wise it’s been great, the perfect move, organizationally. I love my teammates, the coach [Mike Thibault]. He’s just the man. I feel like he teaches us so much about basketball but even more about life. Not only that, I’m closer to home.”

When the WNBA season ends, she’ll turn her attention immediately to the U.S. team, when it’ll be “gold or bust,” Delle Donne said, at the World Cup.

She missed a recent 83-46 exhibition win over China after suffering a neck strain several days before in practice.

“It’s sore, but I’m able to play,” she said.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has ascended to the head coach’s spot with the U.S.

“The culture is just so strong,” Delle Donne said. “It never really changes. Dawn’s been awesome. It’s been fun playing for her, and she played for USA basketball, so she has a different perspective, which is really cool.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.