Elena Delle Donne, the Ursuline Academy graduate who captivated the state with her basketball talents, is among eight women who will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame next June. The ceremony will take place on June 27, 2026, in Knoxville, Tenn.
Delle Donne, who was recently named the national team managing director of USA Basketball’s 3-on-3 team, exploded on to the scene in 2003-04 as an eighth-grader at Ursuline. She led the Raiders to four state championships in five varsity seasons and is the all-time leading scorer in Delaware high school basketball, male or female. She played in the 2007 WBCA High School All-America Game
After committing to play her college ball at Connecticut, Delle Donne enrolled at the University of Delaware and finished third in the nation in scoring as a freshman with 26.7 points per game. She was the player of the year and rookie of the year in the Colonial Athletic Association. She led the NCAA in scoring as a junior. The Blue Hens qualified for the NCAA women’s tournament her junior and senior years.
Delle Donne was the second overall pick in the 2013 WNBA draft by the Chicago Sky and played four years there. She was the 2013 rookie of the year and 2015 league most valuable player. The Sky reached the playoffs for the first time while she was on the team and made the finals in 2014.
She was traded to the Washington Mystics in 2017 and helped the team reach the WNBA finals in 2018, the first time they had advanced that far. She was the MVP a second time in 2019 as the Mystics won the WNBA championship.
She was a member of several national teams, including the 2016 Olympic team that won the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro. She has been a Special Olympics global ambassador; her older sister, Lizzie, is blind, deaf and has cerebral palsy.
Delle Donne retired in April 2025.
The other inductees are players Candace Parker, Isabelle Fijalkowski and Amaya Valdemoro; coaches Cheryl Reeve and Kim Muhl; broadcaster Doris Burke; and the late Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, who starred at Clemson University.
