Helen Darling (San Antonio, 2007-10)

WNBA	USA Basketball	Overseas	College	High School	Personal
Click above to jump to that part of Helen Darling’s bio

NO: 30
POS: Guard
HGT: 5-6
DOB: August 29, 1978
SCHOOL: Penn State ‘00

*WHERE IS DARLING NOW?

• Founder and owner since January 2005 of My Darling-Tots Foundation, which focuses on children’s literacy efforts.

(*As of February 2024)

WNBA TRANSACTIONS

April 25, 2000	Drafted by Cleveland in the second round (No. 17 overall) of 2000 WNBA Draft.
January 6, 2004	Drafted by Minnesota in the 2004 WNBA Dispersal Draft.
February 11, 2005	Traded to Charlotte.
January 8, 2007	Drafted by San Antonio in the 2007 WNBA Dispersal Draft.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Earned the 2003 WNBA Community Assist Award.
• Closed out her 10-year WNBA career with a four-year run in San Antonio; averaged 3.1 ppg and 2.3 apg over 131 games from 2007-10.
• On August 15, 2009, became the league’s 16th player to reach 1,000 points, 800 assists and 300 steals in a career.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	TM	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3PM	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB/AVG	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS/AVG
2000	CLE	32	0	556	47	150	.313	13	38	.342	48	65	.738	24	39	63/2.0	65	37	5	67	52	155/4.8
2001	CLE	32	32	778	59	166	.355	23	70	.329	55	72	.764	18	58	76/2.4	109	34	4	70	59	196/6.1
2003	CLE	34	34	832	44	143	.308	23	71	.324	30	41	.732	25	62	87/2.6	128	39	6	74	87	141/4.1
2004	MIN	33	22	707	43	130	.331	12	55	.218	42	63	.667	11	56	67/2.0	115	30	4	74	83	140/4.2
2005	CHA	31	11	600	27	88	.307	10	32	.313	43	58	.741	5	42	47/1.5	83	41	0	51	73	107/3.5
2006	CHA	29	29	614	51	138	.370	18	47	.383	38	55	.691	13	46	59/2.0	82	35	3	73	76	158/5.4
2007	SAS	33	19	684	46	120	.383	15	41	.366	27	35	.771	7	62	69/2.1	103	45	1	53	84	134/4.1
2008	SAS	31	14	580	33	123	.268	12	60	.200	30	38	.789	13	60	73/2.4	54	33	3	45	67	108/3.5
2009	SAS	34	13	642	27	109	.248	13	44	.295	37	55	.673	14	47	61/1.8	100	30	5	40	79	104/3.1
2010	SAS	33	1	391	18	60	.300	6	22	.273	22	34	.647	11	23	34/1.0	47	20	1	32	51	64/1.9
CAREER		322	175	6384	395	1227	.322	145	480	.302	372	516	.721	141	495	636/2.0	886	344	32	579	711	1307/4.1

WNBA POSTSEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Made a playoff run in 8 of her 10 years in the league, including her final four with San Antonio.
• Most productive playoffs came in 2007, when she averaged 8.4 ppg and 3.8 apg as the Silver Stars defeated the Monarchs in the conference semifinals before falling to the Mercury in the Western Conference Finals.
• Furthest playoff run came in 2008, when San Antonio lost in the WNBA Finals to Detroit after downing Sacramento in the conference semis and Los Angeles in the conference finals.
• Averaged 5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg and 2.2 apg in her first playoff run in 2000 when the Rockers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

WNBA POSTSEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	TM	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB/AVG	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS/AVG
2000	CLE	6	0	106	9	28	.321	5	13	.385	10	14	.714	7	13	20/3.3	13	7	0	6	5	33/5.5
2001	CLE	3	3	80	5	27	.185	3	9	.333	5	6	.833	5	6	11/3.7	19	7	1	5	9	18/6.0
2003	CLE	3	3	83	2	13	.154	1	8	.125	4	4	1.000	4	8	12/4.0	13	6	0	10	11	9/3.0
2004	MIN	2	2	44	2	9	.222	2	3	.667	1	2	.500	2	1	3/1.5	3	3	0	11	4	7/3.5
2007	SAS	5	5	121	14	30	.467	9	17	.529	5	6	.833	3	14	17/3.4	19	6	0	13	14	42/8.4
2008	SAS	6	0	53	5	13	.385	2	7	.286	0	0		3	4	7/1.2	5	3	0	7	8	12/2.0
2009	SAS	3	0	34	1	5	.200	0	0		2	4	.500	1	3	4/1.3	3	1	0	1	4	4/1.3
2010	SAS	2	0	14	1	2	.500	0	0		0	0		0	1	1/0.5	0	0	0	2	0	2/1.0
CAREER		30	13	535	39	127	.307	22	57	.386	27	36	.750	25	50	75/2.5	75	33	1	55	55	127/4.2

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USA BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS

• Member of the 1999 USA World University Games Team that earned the silver medal with a 4-2 record in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
• Led the team with 13 steals.
• Participated in USA Junior National Team trials in 1996 (U18) and 1997 (U19).

USA BASKETBALL STATISTICS

TEAM

G/S

FGM-FGA

PCT

3PM-3PA

PCT

FTM-FTA

PCT

REB/AVG

PTS/AVG

AT

BK

ST

1999 WUG

6/2

5- 29

.172

0- 8

.000

12- 15

.800

15/ 2.5

22/ 3.7

9

0

13

OVERSEAS HIGHLIGHTS

• Played a portion of at least one season Haoel Tel Aviv and averaged 10.5 ppg. 2.0 rpg and 2.5 apg in two EuroCup games for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

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COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS

• 2000 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, presented to the nation’s best player under 5-8.
• Led the nation in assists as a senior in 1999-2000 (7.83 apg).
• Earned 2000 NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional Most Outstanding Player honors.
• 2000 WBCA All-America first team.
• Was the 2000 Big Ten Player of the Year and the 2000 Big Ten Tournament MVP.
• Was a two-time (1999, 2000) All-Big Ten first team selection.
• First player in school history to amass at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 700 assists.

COLLEGE STATISTICS

YEAR	G/S	MIN	FGM–FGA	PCT	3PM-3PA	PCT–FTM	FTA	PCT	OFF	DEF	REB/AVG	AST	TO	BLK	STL	PTS/AVG
1996-97	27/25	732	60-199	.302	0-4	.000	90-127	.709	44	74	118/4.4	119	129	0	47	210/7.8
1997-98	34/34	1064	114-288	.396	4-15	.267	111-171	.649	71	107	178/5.2	172	166	0	88	343/10.1
1998-99	30/30	997	113-289	.391	1-7	.143	146-191	.764	70	105	175/5.8	226	146	2	79	373/12.4
1999-00	35/35	1206	111-280	.396	15-52	.288	131-169	.775	54	147	201/5.7	274	136	3	100	368/10.5
CAREER	126/124	3999	398-1056	.377	20-74	.270	478-658	.726	239	433	672/5.3	791	577	5	314	1294/10.3

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HIGH SCHOOL

• Attended Brookhaven High School (Ohio) where she held the school’s all-time career record for scoring with 1,490 points and helped lead her team to a 1996 state title with a perfect 28-0 record.
• Named 1996 WBCA High School All-American and 1996 Parade Magazine All-American fourth team.
• Named 1996 Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year.
• Earned varsity letters four years in track & field and twice in volleyball.
• Finished fourth in the 1995 state shot put.

PERSONAL

• Married to Orlando Tot; gave birth to triplets on April 13, 2002, sons Ja-Juan and Jalen and daughter Nevaeh.
• Daughter is a senior at Oklahoma (2023-24) and sons are both playing their second season in 2023-24 for Montana State-Billings after transferring from Dawson Community College.
• Daughter of Donald and Patricia Darling, one of five children.
• Inducted into the 2014 Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Starting with Hide-n-Seek Monday, Darling has published seven children’s books, each corresponding to a day of the week and featuring her triplets as the main protagonists.

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