Deanna Nicole "Tweety" Nolan (russian: Деанна Нолан; born August 25, 1979) is an American-Russian professional basketball player for

UMMC Ekaterinburg BC Ekaterinburg (russian: БК «УГМК») is a Russian women's basketball team based in Yekaterinburg competing in the Russian Premier League, and until February 2022 in FIBA Europe's EuroLeague Women. In reaction to the 2022 Russian inv ...

of the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

as well as the

Russia women's national basketball team The Russia women's national basketball team is administered by the Russian Basketball Federation. The team has participated in four FIBA World Championship for Women and their best finish has been a silver medal in 1998, 2002 and 2006. In Euro ...

. Her primary position is

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

, but occasionally plays the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

position. Her original name was Deana, but was legally changed to Deanna in 2000. She went to Flint Northern High School where she graduated and took that school state to state champs.

Early life

Nolan is the daughter of the late Phillip Murphy and Virginia Nolan. She has 1 older brother Omar, 1 younger brother Christopher, and 1 older sister Lekia. She lost her father 2 days before her first birthday.

High school years

Nolan attended

Flint Northern High School Flint Northern High School was a public secondary school located in Flint, Michigan. The original building "#1" was built in 1928 and demolished in the 1980s, after being the home of the Flint Academy. It was one of the high schools in the Flint ...

where she led her team to back to back

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

state championships in 1994 and 1995, and was crowned as Michigan's 1995 Miss Basketball.

Trivia

Her favorite basketball players are

Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson (; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iver ...

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...

, and

Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrook III (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team, he is a nine-time NBA All-Star and ...

College years

Nolan graduated in December 2001 with a degree in child and family development from the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. Overall, she helped the Lady Bulldogs achieve an 86–12 record overall during her collegiate career. As a senior, Nolan earned 2001 All- SEC Tournament Team honors.

WNBA career

In the 2001 WNBA Draft, Nolan was selected by her home state team,

Detroit Shock The Detroit Shock were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They were the 2003, 2006, and 2008 WNBA champions. Debuting in 1998, the Shock were one of the league's first expansion franchises. ...

in the first round (sixth overall). She has been nicknamed "Tweety", and is well known by fans for her amazing vertical leap. Nolan also helped the Detroit Shock win their first championship in 2003. In 2006, she won another championship with Detroit and was named MVP of the 2006

WNBA Finals The WNBA Finals are the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. Starting 2016 Verizon is the officia ...

. In 2008, she helped the Shock win their third WNBA Championship. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, she was named the Detroit Shock Player of the Year in voting by members of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association.

International career

In the 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2012–13 WNBA off seasons, she played for the

club in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. She obtained a Russian passport in order to not count against the team's allowed number of foreign players. She stated during 2008 that she hoped to play for the Russian Olympic team, but was passed over in favor of

Becky Hammon Rebecca Lynn Hammon ( rus, links=no, Бекки Хэммон; born March 11, 1977) is an American-Russian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women’s National Basketball Associati ...

Notes

External links

WNBA Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Deanna 1979 births Living people African-American basketball players American women's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Russia Basketball players from Flint, Michigan Detroit Shock players Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball players LGBT basketball players LGBT people from Michigan Lesbian sportswomen Naturalised citizens of Russia Russian people of African-American descent Olympic basketball players of Russia Point guards Russian women's basketball players Women's National Basketball Association All-Stars 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American women United States women's national basketball team players