What a career! 👏 Today, Elena Delle Donne announced her retirement.
In 2015, she remembered one of the biggest games of her life — leading
@DelawareWBB to their first-ever Sweet Sixteen: “I regret nothing.
I could have stayed at Connecticut. I could have won multiple national titles.
I didn’t, and I regret nothing.
My entire basketball career, from childhood through college, took place in the state of Delaware. The same people watched me grow as a player and as a person; they went through the ups and downs with me. There, I was able to achieve the unthinkable. In 2012, we brought the University of Delaware women’s team its first-ever NCAA tournament win. The next year — my senior year — we went to the Sweet Sixteen. To bring prominence and excitement to the state and the university — my two homes — that’s more important than a championship. I believed that all along but I never felt it more than when we played against North Carolina in the 2013 NCAA tournament.
That was my last-ever home game at the Bob Carpenter Center, our home court. That was also the best game I’ve ever played....
This is our game. We’re winning this game. I screamed with confidence. All of them looked right back at me with fiery eyes. They knew it, too.
And we did.
The clock ran out. I was overwhelmed. I had chills throughout my whole body. Our team had never played a more perfect game. My whole family was there — that, above all else, was everything. I looked at them and couldn’t help but cry. They’d always believed in me, even when everyone else didn’t. I couldn’t have painted a better picture or written a better story. It all came together. I said goodbye to my home with a win, and Delaware was headed to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time.
Every decision I had made up until then — no regrets.”
playerstribu.ne/EDelleDonne