Puerto Rico national basketball team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Puerto Rico

FIBA ranking

12^th

FIBA zone

FIBA Americas

National federation

FBPR

Coach

Unknown

Olympic Games

Appearances

Unknown

Medals

None

World Championships

Appearances

Unknown

Medals

None

FIBA Americas Championship

Appearances

Unknown

Medals

Gold: 1980, 1995
Silver: 1988, 1993, 1997
Bronze: 2003

Uniforms

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Home

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Away

The Puerto Rican national basketball team (or Puerto Rican national basketball selection) is the men's side that represent Puerto Rico in international basketball competitions, including in the Games of the Olympiad, Pan American Games, Goodwill Games, Central American and Caribbean Games, Centrobasket, and FIBA World Championship. The side, selected by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation, historically comprised only players from the National Superior Basketball League, but, in the 1990s, began to include Puerto Rican players playing in the American National Basketball Association. Similarly-styled teams represent Puerto Rico in women's and juniors competitions.

1 History
2 Uniform
3 Current national team
4 Notable players past and present

[edit] History

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In the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the team reached the fourth place thanks to the contribution of Juan "Pachín" Vicéns. This was the highest place they had reached since the teams birth. However, during the 1970s, the team had a varying degree of success on these competitions.

The 1980s, it could be said, were the team's golden years. They earned gold medals at the 1983 Venezuela Pan American Games, the 1986 Dominican Republic Central American and Caribbean games, and the 1989 Mexico Centrobasket. After that triumph, the Puerto Rican players returned home to a large welcoming at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan. They also obtained a Bronze medal at the 1987 Pre Olympics held in Uruguay, to secure their first Olympic participation since 1976. They did not participate at the 1980 Moscow games due to the American boycott of that competition (The Puerto Rican team, as Puerto Rico is an autonomous nation sportswise, could have participated; they chose to respect the boycott instead), and at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because they failed to qualify. The Puerto Ricans advanced to the second round in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, finishing in seventh place.

In 1987, the men's sub-21 national team also brought national pride to basketball fans in Puerto Rico, winning the gold medal at the sub-21 Centrobasket, held in Caguas, Puerto Rico, defeating the Cuban team by a score of 94-78 in the championship game.

During the 1990s, their success slowed somewhat; nevertheless, they qualified for the 1992 Barcelona, Spain Olympics and they reached the second round there, having the misfortune of facing the Dream Team in their first game of the elimination round. They finished in eighth place in Barcelona.

In 1996, they conquered the first of back to back Gold medals at Centrobasket. In 2000, they retained the Centrobasket title, with another triumph in Mexico. In 2003, the team won the Gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games, held at El Salvador.

The Puerto Rican National Basketball Team conquered the silver medal at the 2004 Centrobasket tournament, losing to the Dominican Republic, 75-74, in the championship game.

In August 15, 2004, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team became the second team in history to defeat the United States Olympic basketball team by recording only the third loss in Olympic competition for the U.S. team, and the first since NBA players were allowed to compete. The other team to defeat the U.S. has been the Soviet Union in the 1972 gold medal game and the 1988 semifinals.

At the 2006 FIBA World Championship contested in Japan, Puerto Rico, in group play, defeated Senegal and the People's Republic of China but lost ties against the United States, Italy, and Slovenia, the latter two, played respectively on August 23 and August 24 in Sapporo, by eight points and then one. The application of a second tiebreaker of points differential to Slovenia, China, and Puerto Rico, each with a winning percentage of .400, placed Puerto Rico fifth in Group D, and the team did not advance to the knockout round; the squad were ultimately placed seventeenth amongst the twenty-four competiing teams.

[edit] Uniform

Guard Carlos Arroyo upon his team's defeat of the United States in 2004 at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.

During most of the 1980s and up until the late 1990s, the team wore a uniform with the word Puerto Rico written in cursive, styled in the way that the NBA's Clippers wore their name on their uniforms at the time. The uniforms were red for road tournaments, and white for tournaments where they were the hosts. Nowadays, the national team's uniform reflects the Puerto Rican flag.

[edit] Current national team

The side who represented Puerto Rico at the 2006 FIBA World Championship comprised:

Jersey number	Position played	Height	Name	Year of birth	Club otherwise represented
4	Center	7'3"	Peter John Ramos	1985	Washington Wizards
5	Forward	6'8"	Angelo Reyes	1982	Criollos de Caguas
6	Guard	6'2"	Roberto Hatton	1977	Spartak St. Petersburg
7	Guard	6'3"	Carlos Arroyo	1979	Orlando Magic
8	Guard	6'3"	Rick Apodaca	1980	Polpak Świecie
9	Guard	6'3"	Christian Dalmau	1975	Prokom Trefl Sopot
10	Guard	6'1"	Larry Ayuso	1977	Zalgiris Kaunas
11	Forward	6'8"	Antonio Latimer	1978	San German Atlethics
12	Guard	6'3"	Filiberto Rivera	1982	Artland Dragons
13	Center	6'10"	Manuel Narvaez	1981	Ponce Lions
14	Forward	6'7"	Carmelo Antrone Lee	1977	Guaynabo Conquistadores
15	Center	7'0"	Daniel Santiago	1976	Unicaja Málaga