4 Lessons From WNBA Champion Elena Delle Donne

WNBA Champion Elena Delle Donne has been named league MVP twice, is a 6-time All-Star and is a member of the prestigious 50-40-90 club (50% field goal percentage, 40% three-point field goal percentage and 90% free throw percentage over the course of a regular season). What’s made her career even more remarkable is that she has been able to accomplish these feats despite injury and chronic illness.

Delle Donne, now 30, has had issues with her thumb, back, nose and more. She also has Lyme disease, which she takes 64 pills each day to treat. Delle Donne took to the internet not to throw a pity party, but to raise awareness for those who battle it and to speak out on the WNBA’s decision to deny her request for a health exemption for the 2020 season.

Delle Donne has been deemed by her personal doctor as immunocompromised, so she requested to be medically exempt from the 2020 season. This would still allow her to receive her WNBA paycheck while protecting her health. After being denied this request, in her own words, Delle Done wrote, “I’m now left with two choices: I can either risk my life…..or forfeit my paycheck.”

Her story puts a human face on an issue that many Americans are facing today. Go back to work and risk getting sick or stay home without pay. She has handled this decision much like she would any other bad news: With grit.

Delle Donne is no stranger to strength. Her older sister, Lizzie, is blind, deaf, autistic and has cerebral palsy. Delle Donne and her wife help care for Lizzie in the WNBA offseason. In a Nike ad, Delle Donne describes her relationship with her sister as this: “She gives me strength. Everyone thinks I carry her. But she’s the one carrying me.”

So, what can we learn from Elena Delle Donne? Here are 4 lessons.

1. It is never too late to speak out about an issue you feel passionate about.

2. Find your why. For Delle Donne, it is her sister, Lizzie. She is motivated by her spirit despite the hand she has been dealt.

3. You are a leader to someone. Use your platform, whatever it may be, to lead and inform others.

4. Life is one big unknown. Take Delle Donne’s advice: “There’s so much in the world that we don’t know, which means the best that we can do is to listen to each other, and to learn from each other — with as much humility as possible.”

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