By John Beisser, Feature Writer, Rutgers Athletics
Arella Guirantes is living the dream, an Olympic dream to be exact.
The 26-year old former Rutgers superstar has earned a spot on the 12-person 2024 Puerto Rican National Olympic Women’s Basketball Team which is in the final stages of preparation for the Paris Games set to tip off with the momentous opening ceremony on July 26. Puerto Rico’s first contest takes place on July 28 at 3:00 pm (ET) against Serbia.
During a stellar three-year RU career that spanned 2018-21, following a freshman season spent at Texas Tech, Guirantes led Rutgers to a sparkling 58-24 (.659) record, including a 34-13 mark in Big Ten (.723). Raised in Bellport, New York along with her four siblings, Guirantes is eligible for the national team under FIBA guidelines because her grandfather was born in Puerto Rico.
In the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in February, Guirantes led Team Puerto Rico in nearly every statistic, averaging 15.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists over three games. In Paris, Guirantes is looking forward to connecting with former Scarlet Knight hoops sensation and 2015 Rutgers graduate Kahleah Copper, a guard for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and member of Team USA.
“Being on the Puerto Rican National Team has been such a blessing,” Guirantes said. “To be put in touch with where my grandfather was born and raised, is really special to me. That I get to represent such a beautiful island, and represent my grandfather, and all of the sacrifices he made to give us a better life, is incredible.
“Growing up in New York, I feel like I didn’t have all that much opportunity to be in touch with my Puerto Rican heritage,” Guirantes continued. “Being on this team is so special. To represent what is home away from home for me and feel the pride that comes with putting on my Olympic jersey means so much more than playing a game.”
With Guirantes at the helm, Rutgers secured a pair of 22-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances, which would’ve been three appearances had the 2020 Tournament not been canceled due to Covid.
Following her final season at RU in 2020-21, Guirantes, who earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers in sports journalism in 2021, was named First Team All-Big Ten for the second consecutive year by the coaches and media. She was also one of five members on the Big Ten All-Defensive Team as selected by the media. In 2020-21, Guirantes was the only player in the Big Ten to rank in the top-5 of each major statistical category, finishing third in scoring (21.3 ppg), fourth in assists (5.2 apg), third in blocks (1.8 bpg) and fifth in steals (2.2 spg). She also poured in 30 or more points in three games in Big Ten competition that season.
Combining her one season at Texas Tech with her three at Rutgers, Guirantes ended her four-year collegiate career having scored 1,696 career points. Less than a month after her final season at RU, Guirantes became the 22nd pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft, selected by the LA Sparks in the second round. In her rookie season, Guirantes played in 25 of LA’s 32 games, with two starts, before moving on to the Seattle Storm for the 2023 season where she appeared in nine games.
During the 2024 season, Guirantes played overseas in the EuroLeague Italy for Beretta Famila Schio. She led the team with 15.2 points per game in addition to ranking top three in rebounds (5.2) and assists (2.4). The year prior, she competed for DVTK HUN-Therm in Hungary.
“To be on the same team as players that I idolized, like Kristi Toliver, was awesome but in the WNBA I didn’t get many chances to showcase my abilities,” said the 5-11 guard who vows one day earn a permanent spot in the ‘league.’ “Playing in Europe has been a great experience,” Guirantes said. “In both Hungary and Italy, pretty much everyone speaks English so there’s no language barrier at all. The biggest difference between the game here in Europe versus the U.S. is it’s so much more physical in Europe. Sometimes it feels like we’re playing football out there.”
Coming out of Bellport High School in 2018, Rutgers was one of the final three schools in contention for the top-50 national recruit’s services, along with Texas Tech and LSU. She chose Texas Tech but following her freshman season in Lubbock, Texas, she made the decision in the spring of 2019 to return closer to home to play at Rutgers and for Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer.
“I was excited to be a Scarlet Knight and to be playing for Coach Stringer, knowing the legacy that she built during her career,” Guirantes said. “And playing for her was great. She was just a mother figure for me and I knew she would do anything for me and always had my best interests at heart. And that was so important to me.”
Though the faces have changed, Guirantes keeps close tabs from afar on the Rutgers program these days, now led by third-year head coach Coquese Washington. One individual she has crossed paths with is incoming five-star RU freshman Kiyomi McMiller, a fellow member of the Jordan Brand whom she met at the 2024 Jordan Brand Classic in Brooklyn back in April.
“I think she’s going to do amazing things and really breathe life back into Rutgers women’s basketball,” Guirantes said. “At the All-Star game I was throwing hints about Rutgers and how great it would be for her to go there. I’m just so excited to see her play.”
"Arella is yet another stellar example of our Rutgers alums achieving high level success in their post-college careers,” Washington said. “We are proud to see Arella excel on the global stage and will be cheering her on during the Olympic Games."
Guirantes was perhaps always destined to be a Scarlet Knight as her mother, Demetria, in a case of serendipitous coincidence, played in high school with eventual Rutgers Hall of Famer Sue Wicks before continuing her career at Stony Brook. Her father, Robert, used to help coach the varsity and junior varsity boys teams at Bellport before taking over his daughter’s training.
“Thanks to my parents, me and my siblings are into all kinds of different things,” said Guirantes who has done modeling work, loves to dance, has a fascination for Anime and confesses that she is obsessed with all things Marvel Comics. “I also play the saxophone. Playing a musical instrument was mandatory in our household growing up. My parents sacrificed so much for me and my brothers and sisters.”
The multiple combinations of flamboyant hair styles Guirantes has worn throughout her collegiate and pro career have become her trademark and she plans on coming up with a few new ones during her time at the Olympics.
“I’ve always been that way since I was a little child,” she said with a laugh. “My mother was a hair stylist and so I’d come out with a different hairstyle like every week. Then it sort of became my thing as I got older and continued with basketball. People started knowing me as the girl with the changing hair (laughs). I guess it’s just a way to express myself in different ways.”
During WNBA All-Star Weekend in 2022, Guirantes caused a stir on the Orange Carpet, wowing sports and fashion fans alike with a collaboration between herself, Jordan Brand, and avant-garde New York design collective Vaquera. At the All-Star game, and for the magazine itself, she modeled a look where she posed in various capes as seen on the Marvel show Moon Knight.
For Arella Guirantes, those parental sacrifices, combined with her own hard work, talent and charisma have placed her on one of the biggest stages in all of sport.
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This article was originally published on the Rutgers University Athletics website on July 23, 2024.
A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relations at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 15-year old daughter Riley.
