For the American lobbyist, see Ana Cruz.
Anna Cruz
Number15
PositionSmall forward / shooting guard
Height5 ft
Height in8
Weight lbs136
LeagueLF
TeamBasket Zaragoza
Birth date27 October 1986 (age 39)
Birth placeBadalona, Barcelona, Spain
Career start2002
Highlights
Wnba profileanna_cruz
Years 12002–2005
Team 1Universitat de Barcelona
Years 22005–2008
Team 2Arranz-Jopisa Burgos
Years 32008–2009
Team 3CB Olesa
Years 42009–2013
Team 4Rivas Ecópolis
Years 52013–2016
Team 5Nadezhda Orenburg
Years 62014
Team 6New York Liberty
Years 72015–2016
Team 7Minnesota Lynx
Years 82016–2019
Team 8Dynamo Kursk
Years 92019-2019
Team 9Fenerbahçe
Years 102019-2020
Team 10Araski AES
Years 112020-present
Team 11Basket Zaragoza

Anna Cruz Lebrato (born 27 October 1986) is a Spanish professional basketball player, currently playing for Spanish team Barça CBS (F.C.Barcelona).[1] She developed her professional career in several clubs in Spain, Russia, Turkey and the United States, and had 178 caps for the Spain's national basketball team from 2009 to 2019, winning a total of eight medals. She also won the 2015 WNBA, the 2017 EuroLeague and the 2017 and 2019 EuroBaskets.[2]

Club career

Cruz started playing basketball in clubs in her hometown Barcelona, making the debut in the Spanish top tier league with UB-Barça at 16, still a junior. Despite winning two leagues in 2003 and 2005, the lack of playtime prompted her to move to CB Ciudad de Burgos, but in her third season there the team was relegated and she went back to Barcelona to play at CB Olesa – Espanyol. She played the following four seasons at Rivas Ecópolis in Madrid, winning two Spanish Cups in 2011 and 2013 and playing the four seasons in the EuroLeague.[3]

She moved abroad in 2013 to play for Russian team Nadezhda Orenburg, where she remained for three seasons. Since the summer of 2014 she has combined the European season with the WNBA, first at New York Liberty and with the Minnesota Lynx since 2015, winning the WNBA championship once. She chose to rest for the summer of 2017 and not to play the WNBA season with the Lynx.[4]

At Dynamo Kursk between 2016 and 2019, she won her first Euroleague.[5] title in 2017 under coach Lucas Mondelo. After a short spell at Turkish club Fenerbahçe in 2019, she returned to Spain for the 2020-21 season.[citation needed]

Career statistics

Regular season

†Denotes seasons in which Cruz won a WNBA championship

|- | align="left" | 2014 | align="left" | New York | 34 || 34 || 27.1 || .462 || .347 || .692 || 3.5 || 3.6 || 1.3 || 0.3 || 2.1 || 7.7 |- |style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 2015† | align="left" | Minnesota | 22 || 17 || 29.1 || .474 || .250 || .786 || 3.6 || 3.0 || 1.0 || 0.2 || 2.2 || 8.0 |- | align="left" | 2016 | align="left" | Minnesota | 6 || 0 || 10.0 || .455 || 1.000 || 1.000 || 1.0 || 2.0 || 0.3 || 0.0 || 0.3 || 2.8 |- | align="left" | Career | align="left" | 3 years, 2 teams | 62 || 51 || 26.2 || .466 || .314 || .753 || 3.3 || 3.2 || 1.1 || 0.2 || 2.0 || 7.4

Playoffs

|- |style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"| 2015† | align="left" | Minnesota | 10 || 0 || 22.1 || .385 || .308 || .667 || 2.1 || 2.7 || 0.9 || 0.1 || 1.6 || 5.2 |- | align="left" | 2016 | align="left" | Minnesota | 6 || 0 || 8.5 || .200 || .500 || .000 || 1.0 || 1.2 || 0.3 || 0.0 || 0.7 || 1.2 |- | align="left" | Career | align="left" | 2 years, 1 team | 16 || 0 || 17.0 || .343 || .333 || .667 || 1.7 || 2.1 || 0.7 || 0.1 || 1.3 || 3.7

EuroLeague

EuroLeague winner
SeasonTeamGPMPPPPPRPPAPP
2009–10Rivas Ecópolis1332.212.44.82.5
2010–11Rivas Ecópolis1229.87.63.92.7
2011–12Rivas Ecópolis2132.99.94.82.9
2012–13Rivas Ecópolis1531.814.14.72.7
2013–14Nadezhda Orenburg1732.18.83.74.6
2014–15Nadezhda Orenburg1630.69.35.04.1
2015–16Nadezhda Orenburg1629.89.14.73.9
2016–17Dinamo Kursk1731.68.24.25.5
2017–18Dinamo Kursk1027.96.05.45.0
2018–19Dinamo Kursk1827.95.94.13.7
2019–20Fenerbahçe823.05.63.62.5

National team

Cruz started playing with Spain's youth teams at 17, winning a total of three medals from 2004 to 2007. She made her debut with the senior team in 2009 at 22 and played her last game in 2019, winning 158 caps 7 PPG, participating in the Rio 2016 Olympics,[6] three World Championships and five European Championships:[7]

Her buzzer-beater shot against Turkey in the 2016 Rio Olympics quarter-finals is one of her key shots with the national team.[8][9][10]

References

  1. ^ "Anna Cruz, fichaje top para el Barça CBS" (in Spanish). fcbarcelona.es. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  2. ^ "FIBA Europe profile". fiba.com. Archived 15 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ "Federación Española de Baloncesto – Competiciones FEB". competiciones.feb.es. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Anna Cruz: Cuando estoy de bajón me alegra ver la canasta de los Juegos. Noticias de Baloncesto" (in Spanish). El Confidencial. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  5. ^ "Anna Cruz profile, EuroLeague Women 2017". FIBA.COM. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  6. ^ "Anna Cruz". Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  7. ^ "archive.fiba.com: Players". archive.fiba.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  8. ^ "Watch Spain's one-legged buzzer beater to beat Turkey". SBNation.com. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  9. ^ "Basketball: Cruz buzzer beater takes Spain to semis". Reuters. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  10. ^ "Spain beats Turkey 64–62 on buzzer beater in women's hoops". USA TODAY. Retrieved 3 October 2017.