{"id":782838,"date":"2026-05-08T21:53:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/782838\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T21:53:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:53:25","slug":"dominique-malonga-is-about-to-become-the-seattle-storms-next-breakout-star-while-chasing-a-computer-science-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/782838\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominique Malonga Is About to Become the Seattle Storm\u2019s Next Breakout Star\u2014While Chasing a Computer Science Degree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated7 min read<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a room with a piano at the apartment complex where most of the Seattle Storm players reside, and they\u2019ve given it a nickname: \u201cDom\u2019s Room.\u201d Dominique Malonga tends to retreat there when her brain gets too overwhelmed\u2014after practice, after a game, or at the end of a long week juggling professional basketball with assignments for her computer science classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend my life there,\u201d the 20-year-old tells me over Zoom in April. She\u2019d taken piano lessons as a kid, and when she came back around to it four years ago she realized she hadn\u2019t forgotten how to play. She taught herself piano pieces on YouTube and disappears to Dom\u2019s Room when she needs an escape. \u201cWhen my mind is full and I need to reset and calm myself, I just go play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Malonga\u2019s fanfare as one of the WNBA\u2019s brightest young stars has centered on her athleticism. The 6-foot-6 French center was drafted second overall by the Storm last year; she was the youngest player in the league at the time, but her size, mobility, and ability to dunk made her impossible to ignore. She spent much of her rookie season quietly studying the game behind a team full of veterans. She gradually became a threat off the bench, and subsequently the youngest player ever to post a double-double and reach 100 career points.<\/p>\n

\"Basketball<\/p>\n

But basketball is only part of what she’s building. While she’s learning the league, she’s also chasing a college degree and filling every spare hour with something new, working toward a life that extends well beyond the court.<\/p>\n

Off-Season Side Quests<\/p>\n

Malonga is calling from Seattle, where she just arrived ahead of training camp after a whirlwind WNBA off-season. She underwent wrist surgery in October, taking her time to truly recover physically and mentally for the first time in years. \u201cIt was the first time I had time for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She then spent the first two months of this year in Miami competing in the Unrivaled<\/a> 3-on-3 league, before going home to France to play in the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament. She suffered a concussion two games in, going back into recovery mode, and spent the rest of her time off with family in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I can stay at home, I stay at home. I’m not really going to go anywhere,\u201d she says. A family of former basketball players, the Malongas tap into their competitive side with card games like Skyjo. \u201cMy dad is obsessed with this game. We do tournaments and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Seattle<\/p>\n

Steph Chambers\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

And somewhere in the midst of all that, she signed up to get her bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science at Southern New Hampshire University, an online program that will take her five or six years to finish. She simply Googled \u201ccomputer science\u201d and chose something that would fit into her lifestyle as a professional athlete.<\/p>\n

Malonga always knew she wanted to get a college degree, even before she knew she wanted to play basketball. While domestic WNBA players do not strictly need a degree to go pro, they are required to be 22-years-old and have exhausted their college eligibility, so most players earn one in that time. But international players like Malonga only need to turn 20 in their draft year. The Cameroon-born, France-raised phenom began playing with ASVEL F\u00e9minin in the Ligue F\u00e9minine de Basketball as well as the French national team at just 16 years old, so she\u2019s been a bit busy the past few years\u2014and the decision to get her bachelor\u2019s degree now is entirely up to her.<\/p>\n

She excelled at math and science in school, and adding tech into the mix felt both current and useful. \u201cWe don’t even understand how it’s going to be in the next five or 10 years,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to be able to navigate that as I am leaving my print in basketball, and also leave my print in the world tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her ultimate goal is to build an app, \u201cany type of app,\u201d though she hasn\u2019t nailed down the concept yet or whether she wants it to connect back to sports. First, she\u2019s focused on getting the degree and finding her rhythm with studying\u2014at the time of our conversation, she\u2019d only been in the program for six weeks. Assignments are due every Sunday, so her plan is to start her weekly modules on Wednesdays. But considering she also has a full-time job, sometimes those assignments get done at 11 p.m. on Sunday night, she tells me with a laugh.<\/p>\n

So far the class material hasn\u2019t exactly been what she expected. She\u2019s currently studying digital community and how to navigate online spaces. \u201cWe have to read a lot of articles and use the resources and then write about that,\u201d she says. \u201cThat’s a lot. I’m like, \u2018Okay, where’s the maths?\u2019 I want to calculate something.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the assignments also ask her to draw from her real life, which has given her an edge. \u201cI use a lot of my experiences in basketball. In this class, for example, we talk about growth mindset, how to overcome challenges, how to set goals, and that’s exactly what I do every day. So that’s really easy, to have that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunking on the Competition<\/p>\n

Another skill Malonga\u2019s been working on this off-season? Her notorious dunks, which she did for the first time in a game on U.S. soil at Unrivaled on January 24. She then did it two more times that season. And fans can expect to see her unleash that rare women\u2019s basketball skill this WNBA season, too. \u201cI always said that that’s something that I really want to implement in my game,\u201d she says. \u201cNow it’s really natural. It’s a layup for me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Basketball<\/p>\n

She says a dunk doesn\u2019t require as much effort as it used to, because she\u2019s worked hard in the gym\u2014but not necessarily on the skill itself. \u201cI feel stronger,\u201d she says. \u201cI really can tell the difference since I got in the States. [I\u2019ve] just been really, really working. When I’m here, that’s all I do. I’m living in that gym, so I think that’ll really help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malonga has specifically worked on strengthening her core and gaining muscle mass in her entire body. As a post player, she\u2019s going up against the most physical players in the WNBA, so her mission was to match up with them before mastering other skills. \u201cThat was really a focus of mine for the first month that I was here, and now it’s just a routine,\u201d she says of her rookie season. \u201cNow you see what kind of work worked for you, and you just keep that and build on that.\u201d Her computer science studies have also made her more interested in the tech the Storm use to track performance, and she recently bought an Oura Ring to analyze a bit of that herself\u2014not just the data it provides, but the software used to create it.<\/p>\n

Her first season at Unrivaled this year improved her speed and conditioning, she says, since full-court 3-on-3 basketball moves at a quicker pace than the usual 5-on-5. \u201cI had more space to express myself on the court. I had the ball more in my hands. I tried more things,\u201d she says. \u201cOverall, I think Unrivaled changed me. So I’m really excited to have a live game to see what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Year 2 Mindset<\/p>\n

Most significantly, this off-season shifted Malonga\u2019s mindset. Recovering from injury, getting back on the court, and being injured again in the span of a few months taught her that things will not always go the way she maps it out in her head\u2014and that\u2019s okay. \u201cYou need to find a way that it will still work,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is really what guided me this off-season.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she arrived in the States for the first time as a rookie, she didn\u2019t put any pressure or expectations on herself to perform, choosing to take her time to get acclimated to an entirely new country and organization. \u201cIt’s another life. It\u2019s completely different,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd if you’re not great in your mind, if you’re not comfortable where you are, you cannot be good on the court.\u201d She trusted the process and trusted that the Storm coaching staff would put her exactly where she needed to be\u2014listening, learning, and constantly putting the team\u2019s needs first.<\/p>\n

She says she feels lucky to have had a team of \u201camazing vets\u201d like Nneka Ogwumike<\/a>, Skylar Diggins<\/a>, and fellow French national team member Gabby Williams<\/a> to learn from in her first year. \u201cI didn’t have to carry a team like some rookies had to do,\u201d she says. \u201cI just had time to really be comfortable in this league. I took my time.\u201d Her playing time increased gradually, so it felt like an intentional, smooth transition.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s free agency period, however, means those three vets are now wearing different jerseys\u2014and it\u2019s Malonga\u2019s time to step up and be an example for a rookie class that includes star draft pick Flau\u2019jae Johnson.<\/p>\n

\"Seattle<\/p>\n

Steph Chambers\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Malonga knows what her coaches expect from her and what her place is on the Storm, and is showing up with a positive attitude ready to give 100 percent of whatever she\u2019s got. \u201cEven in my bad days, nobody knows it’s a bad day for me, and that’s just natural for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI know that I don’t need to talk to lead. I will just always lead by the way I show up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A successful WNBA season for her would look like the Storm winning it all, but she prefers not to go into year two saying she wants to achieve anything specifically for herself. \u201cKnowing what I worked on, I just want to be able to impact the team the best I can and just really give my everything, so that’s what I focus on right now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Much like the app she wants to build that doesn’t have a concept yet, or the piano songs she has yet to learn, or the dunks that are only really getting started, Malonga’s approach to all of it is the same: Don’t project too far ahead, just do the work in front of you. \u201cI think by thinking like that, it will come,\u201d she says. No matter what happens, she\u2019ll take it head on and figure it out herself.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Amanda Lucci is the director of special projects at Women\u2019s Health, where she works on multi-platform brand initiatives and social media strategy. She also leads the sports and athletes vertical, traveling to cover the Paris Olympics, Women\u2019s World Cup, WNBA Finals, and NCAA Final Four for WH. She has nearly 15 years of experience writing, editing, and managing social media for national and international publications and is also a NASM-certified personal trainer. A proud native of Pittsburgh, PA, she is a graduate of Ohio University\u2019s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Follow her on Instagram @alucci. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7 min read There\u2019s a room with a piano at the apartment complex where most of the Seattle…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[264745,2392,320274,1201,311952,2875,306292,320273,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":["post-782838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-collection-sports-athletes","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-7d89c891-bdd9-4657-beaa-d7a4d5f9c82c","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-8","tag-shorttitle-dominique-malongas-wnba-off-season-side-quests","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116541181990099577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}