Dominique Malonga on Growing Up With Wemby, the Seattle Storm, and A’ja Wilson’s Greatness

The Old Man and the Three

ThreeFourTwo Productions | Wondery

Sports

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this special episode of ‘The Young Man and the Three,’ we welcome Dominique Malonga of the Seattle Storm. Malonga, who was the second overall pick of the WNBA draft behind Paige Bueckers, discusses her rookie season, which ended with a playoff appearance with the Storm. In that series, she faced A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces - Malonga talks about what it’s like guarding A’ja and praises her as one of the league’s best. Malonga also shares what it was like growing up in France in the same town as Victor Wembanyama and how they randomly met when they were kids. She also reflects on her draft night and some of her welcome to the league moments, which included guarding Alyssa Thomas her first game. She then shares the influence that Kevin Durant and Breanna Stewart had on her when she was watching them growing up as well. She ends with sharing what aspects of her game she’ll be working on this offseason, and her answer might be scary for the rest of the WNBA. Let’s go!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I've talked with Victor.
0:02.0	We've done episodes with him in the past, and we've talked about some of his background
0:05.5	from a training standpoint.
0:08.6	I'm curious with your guy's relationship.
0:10.4	When did you guys first meet?
0:11.7	Actually, it's a funny story because Victor and I are from the same town in France.
0:16.9	Paris, not there.
0:18.1	So first, first meet we met randomly. I think I was 12 or something, we met
0:24.3	randomly at a playground in our city. And we just played as kids that are going to go play
0:31.3	playground basketball. It's very interesting that even being from the same country is one thing,
0:35.9	but the same talent. We really met randomly, like, I was just kids. I just wanted to play basketball.
0:46.5	Welcome back to a special episode of The Young Man in the Three.
0:49.3	Today's guest is one of the most exciting young players in the WMBA.
0:53.1	Dominique Malanga, high-flying, forward,
0:56.7	center, do everything. Rookie extraordinaire for the Seattle Storm. Just wrapped up her first
1:02.4	really successful season up there in Seattle with a great playoff run. We get into all things,
1:08.1	Storm, her really fascinating background growing up outside of Paris,
1:14.1	everything going on in the W finals right now, and a lot more.
1:18.2	Today's episode of The Young Man, the Three, is brought to you in partnership with Quest Nutrition.
1:22.4	Sucumb to great tasting snacks packed with protein.
1:25.5	Quest, big on protein, low on sugar, huge on flavor.
1:29.2	Let's get into today's show.
	...

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