Carla Leite, the French point guard who won the 2025 EuroCup Women title and now starts for the Portland Fire, averages 15.9 points and 6.3 assists per game this season, making her one of the league's most effective facilitators.

However, several months ago, before joining the Portland Fire, she was about to hang up her sneakers forever while playing in Spain.

Speaking in an interview to Bebasket.fr, Leite reflected on her experience of playing for half of the season in the Spanish club Casademont Zaragoza, saying: "Last season I went to Zaragoza and it was horrible! I think that year I lost the desire to play basketball. Seriously. There were times when I didn't want to go to practice."

This statement is significant given the six-month period under discussion. Leite endured the 2025-26 season of the Liga Femenina while under the coach Carlos Cantero, a situation which forced the 22-year-old into reconsidering if having an easier life away from the sport was preferable.

The Portuguese player expressed gratitude to her teammate, the French Ornella Bankolé, and also Aminata Gueye, who were also French, saying that they had helped her "think about other things and do things outside of basketball, because otherwise it wouldn't have been easy at all."

This support structure was essential for her since Leite did not have the cushion of experience to rely on.

She was the last player cut from the squad ahead of the Olympics in 2024 and only had four caps from ‌international games to her name going into this year’s FIBA World Cup in Zaragoza.

A fresh chapter opened up to her, however, and that change in luck warrants its own discussion.

Leite finds her footing as Portland Fire's breakout starter

This comparison between Zaragoza and Portland is now at the heart of how Leite describes her career. She paid her own buyout clause after Villeneuve d'Ascq LM’s success in EuroCup to play for the Fire, and she hasn’t regretted it yet.

"Sometimes I compare myself to myself. I think that six months ago I wasn't doing well, I had lost all the joy of playing basketball, and now, in Portland, I'm playing better than ever before," she said.

Leite added, "Sometimes all it takes is having a coach who believes in you and helps you change your mindset," pointing directly at the culture shift behind her numbers.

She recorded consecutive 11-assist outings in August and poured in 26 points with four three-pointers in a rout against Atlanta Dream. The Portland environment made her perform in a way she could never have in Zaragoza.

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Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Utsav Gupta