NEW YORK -- Stacey Porrini Clingan never got to see her son play high school or college basketball.
She died of breast cancer in March 2018 at age 42. Donovan, then 14, decided to channel his pain, passion and prodigious frame into basketball at Bristol Central High School and then UConn in her honor.
“I really didn’t take basketball seriously when she was here, I just played it for fun,” Donovan Clingan, now a 7-foot-2, 282-pound center, said last year.
“When she passed, I wanted a reason to make her proud and I wanted to be successful in some way,” he said. “So basketball it was.”
Porrini Clingan was with her son in spirit on Wednesday night when he was chosen No. 7 in the NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers after his sophom*ore season under Dan Hurley at UConn. Hurley and Bill Clingan, Donovan’s father, were with him in the Green Room. Donovan hugged his father first.
“I knew she was smiling down on me,” Clingan said Thursday on ESPN. “I worked very hard for this moment my whole life, so just to have that moment with my family, I know she’s looking down on me, she’s happy for me, she’s proud of me. But I know she wants me to keep working and getting better and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Clingan was one of two players from UConn’s second straight national championship team to get chosen in the lottery. Freshman guard Steph Castle went No. 4 to the San Antonio Spurs, marking the first time UConn had two players in the lottery in 12 years.
“They always told me that they were super high on me,” Castle said. “But of course it’s the NBA Draft, so you can’t make any promises to anybody.
“I just can’t wait to get out there and show my versatility, especially with the kind of talent that we already have on that team. It being the youngest team in the league right now, I feel like our future is pretty bright. I just can’t wait to get out there.”
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Two other UConn players -- Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer and All-America point guard Tristen Newton -- could go later in the two-day draft.
“I really hope to hear everyone’s name called,” Clingan said Tuesday. “Everyone deserves to hear their name called because of how hard we’ve worked, all the winning we’ve done and how talented everyone is. Especially Tristen and Cam, they’re very very special people and they’re going to bring a lot of winning to an organization.
“And Steph, I’m really proud of him, how he came in as freshman and how he’s showing how elite of a player he is and I’m really excited to hear his name called.”
Porrini Clingan’s death left Clingan and his younger sister, Olivia, 18, without a mother, and their father, Bill, a single parent. Bill Clingan, a 6-6 bear of a man with an infectious smile, shouldered the responsibility of raising two children and balancing his son’s emerging basketball career with his own hectic work schedule as an operations supervisor at an electric company.
Bill Clingan said he and his son had to balance summer A.A.U. basketball with recruiting trips, school and work, as well as taking care of Olivia, who didn’t travel with them.
“He’s a mom and a dad for both of those kids, and does a terrific job with it,” said Tom Moore, a UConn assistant coach, who began recruiting Donovan Clingan when he was a freshman in high school.
When Donovan was born, he weighed 12 pounds and measured 25 inches from head to toe.
“He was basically a toddler,” his father said.
Bill Clingan said he and his wife noted that their son would grow in fits and starts, getting pudgy just before a growth spurt.
“He would gain some weight and then, all of a sudden, he would go up three inches,” he said.
Donovan Clingan was 6-8 by his freshman year of high school, and as he grew taller and taller, his height prompted the usual ribbing from his classmates.
“How tall are you? How’s the weather up there?” they would ask.
When his recruitment began to heat up in the summer of 2021, his father took vacation days so he could take his son on official visits to Michigan, Ohio State, Syracuse and, eventually, UConn. Moore began recruiting Clingan during his freshman season, and Hurley soon followed.
The coaches had never seen anyone “that big who ran that well, passed that well and with shooting touch and hands,” Moore said. “I remember Dan saying he was like a unicorn.”
After helping UConn win back-to-back titles by averaging 13.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks, Clingan declared for the Draft as expected.
He said he worked out for five teams, including the Blazers, where he met coach Chauncey Billups.
“I like Coach a lot,” he said. “When I went out there for my visit, he was a good dude, great dude. The whole staff, the whole organization, you can really tell people that want to learn and want to win and learn and get better. That’s what I’m about, and I’m really ready to go get going.”
He said he wants to “impact winning” in the NBA.
“it’s been a crazy two years, from winning one national title to winning the Big East regular season to the Big East Tournament and then winning another national title,” Clingan said. “A lot of winning, a lot of succeeding the past two years. I feel like I’m going to keep that chip on my shoulder and go into Portland with just a lot of confidence, with a willingness to learn and get better every single day.
“I just want to have an impact and try to help this organization win and get to the top and try to win championships.”
Clingan said he’s looking forward to testing himself against the NBA’s best big men.
“I’m a competitor,” he said Tuesday. “I want to play against [Nikola] Jokic, I want to play against [Joel] Embiid, I want to play against all those guys. I want to play against the best of the best because that’s how you learn and that’s how you get better.”
Former Indiana and Georgia coach Tom Crean believes Clingan can make a big impact early in the NBA, especially defensively.
“The ability to play with both hands, defend with both hands, he’s got quickness, he’s got length,” Crean said on Sirius NBA radio.
“He’s been well-coached. certainly going back to high school and then what he’s done at UConn with Danny. That size, that mobility, he’s competitive and in a league right now that’s showing you’ve got to have great protection he would probably be the next guy to me because I think his upside is really good.”
And somewhere his mother is looking down with pride.
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.
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