BRISTOL – Donovan Clingan didn’t have to think very hard to remember an important piece of advice he’d received from Dan Hurley.
While he was making his decision to leave UConn for the NBA Draft last spring – a decision he blames Hurley for making more difficult – “He pushed me out of there,” Clingan said. The Huskies’ head coach told him, “Donovan, no matter what happens, don’t change who you are as a person. No matter what happens on the basketball floor, what happens in life, just who you are as a person, don’t let that change and don’t let the people around you change you.”
So there he was on Tuesday night in Bristol, towering over the podium in a tailored green suit, speaking to a room of more than 300 people who’ve followed and felt connected to his career in some capacity. He stayed loyal to Bristol Central High despite the recruiting efforts of powerhouse prep schools and won a state title with the Rams, then chose to stay in state at UConn and won a pair of national championships. But he was selected seventh overall in the NBA Draft to the Portland Trail Blazers, beginning the next stage of his career as far from home as possible.
Clingan spoke Tuesday night in the comfort of his community, a headliner for an event titled: “Seeking Success and Leaving a Legacy” at the Doubletree in Bristol. It was put on by the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame, to which his late mother and inspiration, Stacey Porinni Clingan, was inducted in 2016.
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“I couldn’t be (more) proud of myself just because of all the hard work I’ve put in to get to this point. It wasn’t easy, especially dealing with Coach Hurley at UConn, that was probably the hardest two years of my life,” he said. “But Bristol sports has really meant a lot to me. My mom went to Bristol Central and something that always meant a lot to me was putting my name next to hers on all the records. I was asked by every high school in the country to go play for them and to go to every state, and I just felt like it was really important to me to stay loyal and stay local and do what I said I wanted to do. That was make my mom proud and put my name next to hers. It ended up working out for me.”
He made the time to come back between a fishing trip in Miami and an offseason vacation to Hawaii – a nice break after a busy year and a half that included a second-consecutive championship run in the NCAA Tournament, straight into NBA Draft prep and then his first professional season.
Clingan took the audience through his whole journey. From sunrise workouts at Bristol Central to playing high school hoops in a mask because of the pandemic, to getting his rear-end kicked by Adama Sanogo as a freshman at UConn and being welcomed to the NBA when Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors beat the Trail Blazers by 36 points in his debut.
The 7-foot-2 defensive anchor played in 67 games, starting 37, in a rookie season that included a sprained ankle and a sprained MCL. He finished the year averaging 6.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, most among all NBA rookies.
Clingan’s dad, Bill, won’t forget Nov. 13, when “DC” flirted with a rare triple-double against four-time defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves, recording 17 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks. Or the second week in February, when he scored 21 points with seven rebounds and zero missed shots against his long-time idol, three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, and followed that performance with 17 points, 20 rebounds and three blocks in another matchup in Denver two days later. He was the first Portland rookie to record 20 rebounds in a game since 1985.
“Playing my first year, the NBA is completely different than college, I’ll tell you that. It’s a lot of hard work, it’s every day for months. You travel four, five times a week, practicing every day, you’re watching film, you’ve got to play the best players that ever touched the basketball one night, and then the next best player the next night,” Clingan told the crowd that was captivated by every word.
“It gets difficult, but one thing I learned is just to keep going no matter what comes your way. You can always outwork someone, you can always find a way to do something the right way and do it better. I always stay in the gym and try to get better at everything I do. I’m just trying to be the best version of myself every single day and I’m just trying to make everyone proud.”
The round of applause served as collective reassurance while Clingan sat back down next to Jay Calnan, another Bristol native who returned to speak about his founding of Team Impact, a nonprofit that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. Malcolm Huckaby, also a former Bristol basketball player who made it to the NBA and now ESPN, served as the host.
Clingan had to think harder during the question and answer session.
A young kid from the Boys and Girls Club stood up in his No. 23 Portland Trail Blazers jersey. He asked, “If you could imagine your younger self, what advice would you give him?”
“Great question,” Clingan said, grinning as he bought time to think of a valuable lesson. “At your age, I would say work harder. I just played basketball for fun and just enjoyed it as a sport, and really didn’t think of it as something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. But now looking back, I wish I started working as hard as I do now at a younger age, and maybe I’d be better than I am (now) … But work hard from a very young age and instill that dedication to just go out there and get better every single day.”
The same kid was one of the first to get a picture with Clingan after the event as he stayed to pose with everyone who wanted a photo. He left the room with a signed basketball and a wide smile.
Originally Published: May 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM EDT
