When Donovan Clingan first shared his interest in basketball, the hand tapping his shoulder was his mother. “She taught him a lot about mental toughness. She was an incredible influence,” said Bill Clingan. For young Clingan, the inspiration behind his basketball career was his mother Stacey Clingan aka Stacey Porrini, who was a basketball player at the University of Maine back in the 1990s. She not only passed her love for basketball to her son but also nurtured them over the years.

Stacey Clingan recorded many achievements during her playing days. While at UMaine, she had an impressive record of 1128 points, 220 blocks, and 929 rebounds. But this is just a glimpse. She was also a three-time America East Conference selection and played in three NCAA tournaments. However, all the support that she could provide as a mother was short-lived.

Clingan family overcoming the “huge blow”

In 2010, the Clingan family’s happiness was shattered as Stacey was diagnosed with breast cancer. “It was a huge blow to the entire family,” said Bill Clingan. But, as she underwent surgeries, she was soon deemed cancer-free until 2015. Nearly five years after the first diagnosis, Stacey was re-diagnosed with cancer, and this time, it was stronger than before.

Consequently, Stacey lost the hard-fought battle three years later on March 27, 2018. At that time, she was merely 42 years old, while Donovan was 14 and his sister Olivia was 12. Despite their young ages, both kids took their mom’s departure as inspiration and worked even harder. “When she passed, it was like flipping a switch. Instead of acting out or in any kind of a negative way, he just turned it into positive energy. Same with my daughter,” said her husband Bill Clingan.

Talking about how she was an incredible mother, Bill said, “She was kind of a matriarch for both sides of our families. She was incredible. She was a fantastic mom.” It was only natural that after she passed away, Bill wished his wife could have been there to accompany him. To fill this void, Bill found immense support from his kids and gradually, they tried to move on.

Donovan Clingan on the way to basketball excellence

While Olivia took up studying finance, Donovan shined bright on the court to keep his mom’s dreams alive. “They were both my rocks because Dad was falling apart. It was a rough couple of years after that, a very rough two years for me. My kids were my rocks. They were incredibly important to me, helping me through everything, believe it or not,” Bill added.

Since then, Donovan has worked hard to achieve an average of 13.0 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. He once told Boston.com, “I want to play in her name and her honor, and try to do special things so I can make her proud,” Even Donovan’s jersey no. 32 is something he wears in his mother’s honor.

“I know she’s smiling down and she’s supporting me. I know she’s definitely not happy with my free throw shooting,” added, 5 foot 7 featuring 57.8% shooting accuracy from strife. But this isn’t his only accomplishment. Apart from amazing stats, Donovan features two national championship wins, a 2024 All-American mention, and a Big East All-Freshman team.

Additionally, his impressive 23.4% defensive rebounding and 11.4% block rate make him a standout. Now that he is coming up for the 2024 NBA draft on Wednesday, he is most likely to be picked as No. 1. Will he be the No. 1 NBA draft pick? Stay tuned to find out!

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