Two-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne retires from basketball

A WNBA legend is hanging up her shoes.

Two-time MVP and league champion Elena Delle Donne announced her retirement from basketball on Instagram on Friday.

“My body seemed to make this decision before my mind accepted it but I now truly know this is the right thing for me at the right time,” Delle Donne wrote.

Delle Donne, the 35-year-old from Wilmington, Del., played 10 seasons in the WNBA with the Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics.

In 2019, as a member of the Mystics, Delle Donne won her second MVP while leading Washington to a championship despite battling a back injury during the Finals.

A five-time all-WNBA selection, Delle Donne also reached seven all-star games including in her final season last year.

She entered the league as the second overall pick by the Chicago Sky in 2013 out of the University of Delaware, spending four seasons with the club and earning her first MVP trophy in 2016.

Delle Donne then played six seasons for the Mystics over seven years, only interrupted in 2020 when she was denied a medical exemption and opted out of playing in the bubble.

Across 241 career games, Delle Donne averaged 19.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists while shooting 39.2 per cent from beyond the arc.