Helen Cristina Santos Luz (born November 23, 1972 in

Araçatuba Araçatuba is a city located in the northwest of São Paulo state, Brazil. The city has 198,129 inhabitants (IBGE/2020) and spans . The city name comes from the Tupi language and means "abundance of araçá (a fruit, Psidium cattleianum)". Ara� ...

, Brazil) is a retired Brazilian professional basketball player. A starting guard on the great Brazilian teams of the 1990s and early 2000s, she was world champion in the

1994 FIBA World Championship for Women The 1994 FIBA Women's World Championship was the 12th edition of the FIBA Women's World Championship, an quadrennial international tournament played by women's basketball teams in FIBA. It was hosted in Australia from 2 to 12 June 1994 at fiv ...

and bronze medallist at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. Luz also played for the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2001–2003, and in the Spanish

Liga Femenina Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Lig ...

for Zaragoza (2003–2004), Barcelona (2004–2006), Rivas (2006–2007), Cadi La Seu (2007–2008), and Hondarribia-Irun (2008–2010). She finished her career in one final season with the Brazilian team Americana, in São Paulo State, announcing her retirement at the end of February 2011. Since retiring, Helen has become a commentator on SporTV, opened (with her sisters) a social project for teaching basketball to children in

Louveira Louveira is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 mil ...

, and begun a regular blog

In addition, she told interviewers that she hoped to become a mother, and on November 21, 2012, she and her husband Octavio welcomed into the world their son Pedro Lafiaccola Luz. Most recently she has become vice president of the Liga Basquete Feminino (the Women's Basketball League of Brazil), and has been invited to join the Commission for Women in Sport set up by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. She is sister to three other basketballers,

Silvia Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the mythological god of ...

, Cínthia and

Rafael Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

Brazilian national team career

Helen played on the Brazilian women's national teams that competed in the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 (7th place), Sydney in 2000 (bronze medal), and Athens in 2004 (4th place), and in the World Championships in Australia in 1994 (Gold medal), Germany in 1998 (4th place), China in 2002 (7th place), and Brazil in 2006 (4th place). Her teams were South American Champions in 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2010. She was MVP in the 2001 Copa América in Brazil and 2005 in Paraguay. Helen retired from the national team after the 2006 World Championship games, but returned in 2009 to help lead the team to victory in the FIBA Americas Championship. In the four games of the tournament she led the Brazilian team in points per game (12.0, 10th in the tournament) and was second on the team in assists per game (3.6, 3rd in the tournament).

WNBA career

Helen signed as a free agent with the Washington Mystics prior to the start of their 2001 training camp. She averaged 13.4 minutes per game over three seasons, usually coming off the bench as a 3-point specialist. She was a fan favorite for her enthusiasm and intelligent, unselfish play; the moment she stood up to approach the scorer's table, the MCI Center would resound with shouts of "Luz!" (A story in the ''Washington Post'' reported that she initially thought she was being booed, and wondered why.) She finished her WNBA career with a quite respectable .377 3-point shooting percentage -- .500 in four playoff games.

Pro League career

Helen played in the Brazil Pro League from 1994 through 2002, with her clubs winning several championships. In 2004, she played with Novosibirsk in the Russian Pro League. From 2003 through 2010 she played in the Spanish Pro League, winning a championship with Barcelona in 2004–5 and Supercopa in 2005 before moving to Cadi in 2007 and then to Hondarribia-Irun in 2008.

Vital statistics

*Position:

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 ...

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 ...

*Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) *Weight 144 lbs. (65 kg) *Born 23-11-1972

External links

WNBA Player ProfileIrmãs LuzHondarribia-Irun team in Spanish Liga Femenina
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080617031640/http://www.cbb.com.br/entrevista/entrevista.asp?entrevista=161 Interview with Photos (in Portuguese)* ttp://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/arti.asp?newsid=30764 Helen, Alessandra and outcast Iziane return for Brazilbr>Helen planeja encabeçar retorno de jogadoras brasileiras ao paísFIBA Americas Championship 2009Appreciation from Spanish Basketball Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luz, Helen 1972 births Living people People from Araçatuba Brazilian people of German descent Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1999 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Brazilian expatriate basketball people in Spain Brazilian expatriate basketball people in the United States Brazilian expatriates in Russia Brazilian women's basketball players Olympic basketball players of Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Olympic medalists in basketball Pan American Games competitors for Brazil Point guards Shooting guards Washington Mystics players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from São Paulo (state)