SAN JUAN (Puerto Rico) – Class is in session each time the Brazilian national team is in the court. The course is Basketball 101 and the professor is 37 years old and measures 6’5”. In class students learn the fundamentals of the sport, tenacity in the game, and how to have a stellar career in international basketball. It's Érika de Souza’s class, and this is her nineteenth year with the national Brazilian team.

There aren't many things missing from De Souza’s book, and it seems as though more pages must be added because she continues to write her story with golden ink. The most recent chapter is staged in the historic Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where De Souza participates today in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup as the main character of the South American team. She’s no stranger to this competition. In fact, she has four medals of the regional championship, and was outstanding in the 2011 edition when her team achieved the gold medal and she was the MVP with 16 points per game and 8 rebounds.

Professional WNBA championships, the EuroLeague, Hungary, and Spain lead the stellar center’s résumé. She’s also appeared four times in FIBA Basketball World Cups, in three Olympic Games and in 11 WNBA seasons, and was chosen three times to the All-Star Game. Two Pan American medals complete her collection.

“I always come back to the national team. I love playing with my teammates,” said De Souza to FIBA.basketball after one of the FIBA Women's AmeriCup Games. “I love playing and I'm happy to be back with the national team. I'm anxious to help my teammates and show them my basketball. The national team will stay with me forever.”

In one of her first international tournaments, the FIBA U19 World Championship 2001, De Souza concluded with an average of 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. With her performance, the player born in Rio de Janeiro set the tone for what would be the rest of her career: pure dominance. But above all, her love for her country. It's a tournament that FIBA Americas President Carol Callan still remembers quite well.

“Érika has been playing forever,” said Callan. “When I was in Lima (at the Pan American Games) I had the opportunity of awarding the medals and I said a special greeting to her, and she couldn't be happier after the game. But the first time I remember I saw Érika was when she was in the World Championship in the Czech Republic. She was in the Brazilian team and Diana Taurasi was with the United States. That was the start of her career and it's been fun to follow her. Seeing her come back once again this summer is also really special.”

At 37 years of age, it’s as if time has stood still. De Souza’s priorities haven’t changed much either. For her, playing basketball is a job. It’s a responsibility. Now it includes planting a seed on younger players, just like Hortencia Marcari, Maria Paula Silva and Janeth Arcain did before her.

“I'm happy for myself and my teammates. Everyone is so young, and they keep our hopes and hoy toward the Olympic Games. I’m doing my job of playing in the national team. I'm writing my own story and I'm very happy,” De Souza explained.

For her 26-year-old teammate and member of the national team since 2009, Damiris Dantas, De Souza has been a mother-like figure that has taken her under her wing and has helped her travel the road up to the WNBA, where she currently plays with the Minnesota Lynx.

“I love Érika De Souza. For me she's the best player in Brazil. The first time I was in the national team, I was young and 17, and she helped me with everything. I said, ‘You're not my friend, you're my aunt,’ and I love her,” Dantas said.

A good indication of how illustrious an athlete’s career has been is when even rivals are forced to accept their greatness. And that's the case with the coach of the US national team, Dawn Staley, who played against De Souza when the Brazilian was starting her career. Now, Staley coaches against the veteran player.

“I played against her when she was really young,” said Staley. “Seeing her here, at 37, and doing what she's doing… My hat's off to her, because she still does it and she does it well. It doesn't matter if you move faster than some of the younger players, I think she plays with her intellect, her body and her experience, and when you have all those things in the same place, the opponent really has to prepare for you and she's going to use that to her advantage in some way.”

Both Staley and De Souza were chosen in 2017 as some of the best 60 players in WNBA history.

If everything goes as usual, we’ll have De Souza for a long time and, who knows, maybe she’ll have to travel to Tokyo in 2020 for her fourth Olympic Games. A truly impressive legacy for someone who hadn't played basketball until she was 16 years old.

Emmanuel Márquez
FIBA