- Saniya Rivers is the 2020-2021
Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year. - Two-time
WNBA MVPElena Delle Donne surprised the North Carolina native with the award Wednesday. - Delle Donne told Insider Rivers' game is "Maya Moore-like," which Rivers said, "means the world."
Elena Delle Donne surprised high school standout Saniya Rivers with the 2020-2021 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award Wednesday.
But more impressive than the prestigious honor itself may be the two-time WNBA MVP's high praise for Rivers, who she said reminds her of WNBA great Maya Moore.
"She's definitely Maya Moore-like," Delle Donne told Insider. "She's a player who can literally play any position on the floor but also plays it on the defensive end, too."
Moore was a superstar at the college level and led the UConn Huskies to back-to-back undefeated seasons before becoming a WNBA MVP, six-time All-Star, and four-time champion.
Delle Donne still thinks the comparison fits the bill.
"I know that's a tough name to be compared to," she said. "But [Rivers] certainly is a player that would make you draw comparisons to a Maya."
And that's precisely where Rivers is aiming. The three-time North Carolina Gatorade State Player of the Year recalled watching Moore play "a few years back" and being enamored by her game.
She resolved to emulate her from there.
"She hit this Euro step," Rivers told Insider. "It was like - she put a little jelly into it. And ever since then, I hit the same [shot], so I definitely can compare my game to her."
Even so, Rivers confessed that it was surreal "for Elena Delle Donne to compare me to her."
"She's a great player," Rivers added of Delle Donne. "So for her to even know my name, know my accomplishments, to congratulate me on a big accomplishment like this just means the world."
Rivers' game certainly warrants the acclaim. The Wilmington, North Carolina, native dropped a whopping 36.8 points per game during her senior season at Eugene Ashley High School, becoming the top-scoring high school women's basketball player in the nation, per MaxPreps.
She added 11.5 rebounds, 5.3 steals, and 5.1 assists per game to boot, leading her Screaming Eagles to a 15-2 record and the Class 4A semifinals this winter. Rivers closed out her high school career with 2,501 points, 1,193 rebounds, and 72 double-doubles.
"Her numbers alone are insane," Delle Donne said. "And it's not just scoring - it's rebounding, it's assists, it's steals."
-Overtime (@overtime) February 13, 2021
None of it came easy, especially this past year. The 2020-2021 season forged on through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing Rivers, her teammates, and opponents to compete for glory while wearing masks.
The nation's second-ranked prospect told Insider that referees even gave players technical fouls for wearing their masks incorrectly. And while safety was necessarily the top priority, Rivers couldn't deny that playing basketball during a pandemic was particularly challenging.
"Pushing through that adversity of wearing those masks all season, playing 40 minutes or however long the game was - it was awful," Rivers said. "It was definitely hard, but just making it to the final four, making it further than everybody else did, it just showed that we deserved it."
"And just to get this award now, it definitely shows that it was all for something," she added. "It was a very emotional moment, and I was grateful, I was happy, I was on the verge of crying just because everybody was there supporting me... It was just an amazing moment. I'll never forget it."
It's undoubtedly the first of many amazing moments for Rivers. The 6-foot-1 guard is headed to South Carolina to join the Gamecocks this fall - "Dawn [Staley] got a good one," Delle Donne insisted - and she has ambitious goals for her time in Columbia.
"Definitely winning four back-to-back Nattys," Rivers said, referring to national championships. "That's been the goal since I figured it out I was committing there, so we're going to do it. I talk to coach and the players about it all the time."
Check out the video of Delle Donne surprising Rivers with the 2020-2021 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award below: