Ticha Penicheiro

Patrícia "Ticha" Nunes Penicheiro OIH (September 18, 1974) is a Portuguese sports agent and former basketball player. She played for the Sacramento Monarchs of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for most of her professional career. She was a four-time WNBA All-Star and a three-time All-WNBA selection. Regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, she ranks third all-time in career assists and led the league in assists seven times. She won a WNBA championship with the Monarchs in 2005. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

College years Penicheiro was born and raised in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. Penicheiro played for several professional clubs through her teenage years, though she did not play at the senior level until after she starred for Old Dominion University college basketball team. She played at Old Dominion from 1994 to 1998 and helped lead the Lady Monarchs to the 1997 NCAA Championship game. In 1997, Penicheiro was named to the Final Four All-Tournament team.

Old Dominion statistics

Source

WNBA career In 1998, Penicheiro joined the Sacramento Monarchs as a rookie, finishing third in the WNBA Rookie of the Year award voting. As a four-time WNBA All-Star player, she has twice tied the WNBA's record with 16 assists in a single game. In 1999, she was selected as a WNBA first-team player. This was also the year she set her WNBA high in points, with 27 against the Minnesota Lynx. In 2001, she was selected as a member of the WNBA's second team.

She had, as of June 19, 2003, 1,027 career points in the WNBA; for an average of 6.8 per game, 1,121 assists; for a total of 7.5 per game, 615 rebounds; for a total of 4.1 per game, and 322 steals, for a total of 2.15 per game.

Penicheiro retired as the all-time WNBA leader in total assists and assists per game, although both records have since been surpassed, respectively by Sue Bird and Courtney Vandersloot. Penicheiro also holds the WNBA single-game record for most steals with 10.

After the Monarchs franchise became defunct, Penicheiro signed with the Los Angeles Sparks. In 2011, her second year with the team, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.

In February 2012, Penicheiro signed with the Chicago Sky, but her season statistics were significantly diminished due to injuries, and on September 18, she announced that she would retire from the WNBA at the end of the 2012 season.

Penicheiro was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

In 2016, Penicheiro was named in the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the WNBA's top 20 players of all time in celebration of the league's twentieth anniversary. She was also named to the WNBA's 25th anniversary team, The W25, in 2021.

WNBA career statistics

†Denotes seasons in which Penicheiro won a WNBA championship

Regular season

Postseason

International career Penicheiro was a member of Portugal's national women's basketball team. She was also on the Spartak Moscow Region team, with Tina Thompson, Sue Bird, and Diana Taurasi. She played for Galatasaray Medical Park of Turkey in the 2011–12 season.

Later career When inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, she was an active agent with about 30 clients, among them current WNBA players Kayla McBride and Courtney Vandersloot.

On February 20, 2013, Penicheiro became an American citizen, taking the oath with 1,200 others at the Sacramento Convention Center.