Interview With Delle Donne

thanks for the link! glad to finally hear it in her own words. i set my dvr for the OTL show on Sunday, as well...hopefully there will be more to it than just the interview.
 
It is a shame that we never got to see her play college ball but it appears that she learned a valuable lesson early in life.

Here is a good follow up article...with a pic of Edwina Brown to boot...

The Link
 
Another interesting article. I'm not sure if Geno is in denial or just can't accept that fact that someone doesn't share the same passion he has. Or maybe he is right on target and there is still more to it than we know. Delle Donne certainly did not choose a coach that was going to accept anything but 100% effort.
The Link
 
Count me in the camp that thinks there is more to this story than what's being said. To me it sounded very rehearsed the number of times she said I just didn't have passion for the game. I'm a little amazed that a kid without passion from age 13-18, as she admits, could work herself into the #1 recruit in the nation.
 
I'm in this boat as well. I believe there is more to the story.

I still can't believe people are still after her for a story. She's just a kid. Leave her alone. At 19 I was in college and doing my own thing. Not a care in the world besides my "boyfriend" and the next party. LOL!
 
I've seen the same thing in tennis. If you look at the game of women's professional tennis I bet you can find a lot of top players who hate every minute of their lives. Justine Henin walked away as the number one player in the world at the age of 25 for the exact same reason, she simply had no more passion for the game. Burnout runs rampant in that sport and I would guess that if truth be known, it is the same in many sports but players keep playing because they don't know what else to do. Families often depend on these young athletes to support them. And I suspect that the fact that Delle Donne would be getting a free ride through college was discussed more than once by her parents.

Michael Jordan walked away from the game after his father's death and played baseball because he no longer had the desire to play basketball and knew that without that passion that he could not play at the highest level expected of him. I suspect that Delle Donne is being honest when she said that she could fake it at the high school level and muddle through but that she knew when she hit the court at UCONN that muddling through wouldn't cut it and it was time to let it go.

Who knows? We may never know. Maybe it is not our right to know. I hope she rediscovers the passion for basketball. She could always transfer to Texas....
 
just watched the OTL story this morning. there was more to it than just the interview, and i agree that the interview did seem a little rehearsed. there was an interview with her old AAU coach, who implied that her dad pushed her pretty hard. her parents wouldn't agree to an interview, though.

the most interesting part was when they showed a clip of EDD and her parents being interviewed back in 2005. and they all talked about how much she loved the game and how girls who love the game are the ones who don't get burned out. it's almost like her parents had to be in denial about it.

i think Geno's right in that there is probably more to it. it's hard to believe that she continued to work so hard at the game when she had no passion for it from age 13. and even harder to believe that neither of her parents could tell she had no passion. OTL interviewed a high school friend of hers that plays volleyball at Delaware, and she said she could tell that EDD was unhappy playing basketball. i think her parents had to know.

i agree with EDD that her decision to leave in the middle of the night after 2 days at UConn probably wasn't the most mature way to handle it. but i do think she was burned out. whether or not she burned herself out, or her parents pushed too hard, we may never know. but i'm glad she finally made the decision to step away and stop faking it. i'm sure she's much happier playing volleyball and being close to her family.
 
...it's a new generation and a new game folks. These kids have grown up in a different world and they do not feel the same responsibility or desire to please everyone else that previous generations did. The game is changing because the kids are changing.

And reading that article reminds me just how much I dislike Geno.
 
Informative interview but overall the tone was bland. Mark Schwarz couldn't interview his way out of a wet paper bag. He was more of a facilitator than someone interacting/questioning. More of a EDD tell all story. Good luck to her.
 
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