She’s Studying Computer Science As a Pro Athlete. Dominique Malonga Is Playing a Longer Game.

Dominique Malonga’s WNBA Off-Season Side Quests Seattle Storm; Women's Health Illustration/Jason Speakman - Hearst Owned There’s a room with a piano at the apartment complex where most of the Seattle Storm players reside, and they’ve given it a nickname: “Dom’s Room. ” Dominique Malonga tends to retreat there when her brain gets too overwhelmed—after practice, after a game, or at the end of a long week juggling professional basketball with assignments for her computer science classes. “I spend my life there,” the 20-year-old tells me over Zoom in April.

She’d taken piano lessons as a kid, and when she came back around to it four years ago she realized she hadn’t forgotten how to play. She taught herself piano pieces on YouTube and disappears to Dom’s Room when she needs an escape. “When my mind is full and I need to reset and calm myself, I just go play.

” Much of Malonga’s fanfare as one of the WNBA’s brightest young stars has centered on her athleticism. The 6-foot-6 French center was drafted second overall by the Storm last year; she was the youngest player in the league at the time, but her size, mobility, and ability to dunk made her impossible to ignore. She spent much of her rookie season quietly studying the game behind a team full of veterans.

She gradually became a threat off the bench, and subsequently the youngest player ever to post a double-double and reach 100 career points. Hearst Owned But basketball is only part of what she's building. While she's learning the league, she's also chasing a college degree and filling every spare hour with something new, working toward a life that extends well beyond the court.