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Puerto Rico (PUR)
FIBA Ranking	10th
Joined FIBA	1957
FIBA Zone	FIBA Americas
National Federation	Federación de Baloncesto de Puerto Rico (FBPR) [1]
Coach	Manolo Cintrón
Nickname(s)	"The Magnificent Twelve"
Olympic Games
Appearances	9
Medals	None
World Championships
Appearances	12
Medals	None
FIBA Americas Championship
Appearances	14
Medals	1980, 1988, 1989, 1995 1993, 1997, 2009 2003, 2007
Uniforms
Light Dark

The Puerto Rico national basketball team is the men's side that represents Puerto Rico in international basketball competitions such as the Olympics Games, the World Championship, the Americas Championship, and others. The team, 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 abroad professionally. In the same fashion, teams represent Puerto Rico in women's and junior´s competitions.

History

The Puerto Rican Basketball Federation joined FIBA in 1957. Known as "The Magnificent Twelve", the Puerto Rico national basketball team has, since then, become a reference for world basketball, being a regular participant in world championship tournaments. At all, Puerto Rico has participated in 9 Olympics and 11 World Championships (having also already qualified for the 2010 Championship), even though it is yet to win a medal in either competition. Nevertheless, due to its outstanding performance and its successful track record within FIBA Americas, the Puerto Rican team is ranked 10^th in the world by the FIBA ranking.

Early Years

Puerto Rico´s first appearance at a World Championship was in 1959 in Chile , where, lead by Juan "Pachín" Vicéns, who averaged 22 points per game, the team finished 5^th with a record of 3-6. In 1963, at Puerto Rico´s second World Championship appearance which took place in Brazil, the team, led by Rafael Valle and Juan "Pachín" Vicéns, opened the tournament winning two straight games. Yet, after losing other six games back to back, ended its participation with a win over Italy, obtaining the 6^th place.

Coming back from its 13^th place debut at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, in 1964 in Tokyo, the team was able to reach 4^th place, in good part because of the contributions of point guard Juan "Pachín" Vicéns. This was, and still is as of 2008, the highest place it has ever reached since the team's birth at any Olympic Games.^[1] Three years later in Uruguay, at the 1967 World Championship, the team, led this time by Raymond Dalmau, was only able to finish 12^th, ending the decade with a 9^th place at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Before the 1970s, regardless of the not-so-good performance at world international tournaments, Puerto Rico started to emerge as a power player at regional tournaments, medaling in all the competitions it participated (the Pan American Games, the CentroBasket tournament and the Central American and Caribbean Games). The medal count included two golds at the 1962 and the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, failing to medal only at the 1967 Pan American Games, where it finished 5^th.

1970s

The 1970s brought some memorable moments for the team, particularly a dramatic one-point loss to the United States at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where a win by Puerto Rico would have been the first undisputed basketball loss for the United States´ team at an Olympic competition. Also, the 1974 World Championship and the 1979 Pan American Games were held in San Juan, promoting local enthusiasm for international basketball and Puerto Rico's presence in it.^[1] The 7^th and 10^th places at the 1974 and 1978 World Championships, where the team, led by Hector Blondet and Rubén Rodríguez respectively, saw 2-5 and 4-3 finishes, became turning points for the Puerto Rican team. The 4-3 showing in 1978 in the Philippines was the first time ever the team finished with a positive record at a World Championship. These achievements were accompanied by golds at the 1973 CentroBasket and the 1978 Central American and Caribbean Games. In all, Puerto Rico continued its regional success and was able to medal in all regional competitions.

1980s

The 1980s were very good for the team, earning gold medals at three of the first four FIBA Americas Championships in 1980, 1988 and 1989, and at the 1985, 1987 and 1989 CentroBasket tournaments.^[1] The gold at the 1988 Americas Championship held in Montevideo, Uruguay, secured the team´s first Olympic participation since 1976.^[1] Having qualified and earned the right to participate, the Puerto Rican team chose not to do so at the 1980 Olympic Games, held in Moscow, due to the American boycott of that competition (being an autonomous nation sportswise, the team could have participated, but decided to respect the boycott instead). It wouldn´t participate either at the 1984 Olympic Games, held in Los Angeles, because the team failed to qualify for it. Eight years after its last showing, Puerto Rico was able to advance to the second round and finished 7^th at the 1988 Olympic Games, held in Seoul.^[1] Two years earlier, at the 1986 World Championship in Spain, Puerto Rico´s performance granted it the 10^th place, having failed to qualify for the 1982 Championship in Colombia.

1990s

During the 1990s, the team´s successes continued as usual. Lead by Piculín Ortíz and Jerome Mincy, the decade began with a 4^th place finish at the 1990 World Championship in Argentina. This is Puerto Rico´s best showing at a World Championship so far, defeating teams such as Yugoslavia, Argentina and the USA, but losing to the USSR and then, losing by two points the rematch at overtime to the USA.^[1] In 1991, besides earning gold at the CentroBasket tournament, the team also won, for the first time in basketball, the gold medal at the Pan American Games, which were held in Cuba.^[1] The team also qualified for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where it reached the second round, unluckily having to face, in its first game of the elimination round, a United States National team composed of NBA players, finishingh at the end in 8^th place. In 1993, Puerto Rico signed its Caribbean supremacy at this sport by winning gold at both the CentroBasket and the Central American and Caribbean Games. This victory at CentroBasket was the last of a 5 gold medal streak at the tournament. In 1994, the team finished in a 6^th place at the World Championship in Canada, but won the gold at the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, defeating teams such as Croatia, Russia, Brazil and Italy.^[1] It was then when Puerto Rico began to be classified as one of the top 10 international teams. Having won gold in 1995 at the FIBA Americas Pre-Olympic Championship, in 1996 at the Olympics Games, the team placed 10^th in Atlanta, while in 1998, it placed 11^th at the World Championship in Greece.^[1]

2000-2004

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.^[1] In 2002, the team had a strong showing at the World Championship held in Indianapolis, USA. In a tournament full of well-known professionals, including NBA superstars, they beat the top 3 European teams at the time; eventual champion Yugoslavia, Turkey and Spain. Puerto Rico, with a 5-1 record entering the quarterfinals, lost its chance to get into the medals round in a dramatic 2-point loss to New Zealand, eventually placing seventh.^[1] Carlos Arroyo debuted at this tournament.

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.^[1]

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, recording only the third loss in Olympic competition for the U.S. team, and the first since NBA players were allowed to compete. The 92-73 outcome of that game is, as of 2007, the most lopsided victory against the US (collegiate or professional players) in the history of Olympic/World Championship basketball. The other team to defeat the U.S. had been the Soviet Union in the 1972 gold medal game (whose outcome is still disputed) and the 1988 semifinals.

2004-2008

Failing to qualify directly for the 2006 World Championship, and due to its great tradition, on November 2005, Puerto Rico was invited to participate as a Wildcard, together with three other great teams: Italy, Serbia and Montenegro, and Turkey.

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 for the first time since 1986; the squad were ultimately placed seventeenth amongst the twenty-four competing teams, being this the shyest performance of the team in a long time .^[1]

On August 6, 2007, the team began in their first participation in a CaribeBasket tournament, debuting against Trinidad & Tobago.^[2] Although the team didn't had the participation of Daniel Santiago or Rick Apodaca, they won the tournament which was classificatory for the 2008 Centrobasket.^[2]

Puerto Rico was placed in Group D of the FIBA Preolympic Tournament in the draw that took place on January 31, 2008.^[3] This group included Croatia and Cameroon and its winner would cross with the second place of Group C.^[3] Following this event the president of the National Superior Basketball League confirmed that the team had already scheduled exhibition games against Germany, Greece and New Zealand beginning on July 4, 2008.^[3] A second set of exhibition games was scheduled to start on July 8, 2008 in Slovenia, after these preparatory tournaments the team would train until the tournament's beginning.^[3] The team began practicing on May 19, 2008, and included several players that were under consideration for inclusion by Cintrón.^[4] On June 4, 2008, Daniel Santiago confirmed that he would abandon his international retirement and play with Puerto Rico in the Preolympic Tournament.^[5] The player announced that he would join the team in July, following an exhibition game.^[5] Javier Mojica, Alejandro Carmona and Joel Jones were included in as potential members in a preliminary team.^[6] On July 1, 2008, hours before the team was scheluded to travel to Europe, Angelo Reyes was excluded after not establishing communication with the directives.^[7] Reyes was replaced with Alex Falcón.^[7] Subsecuently, Reyes asked for a dispense to attend personal matters, noting that he intended to join the team in a week, however the player was not included due to time contrains.^[8][9] In the first game of a series of exhibition games, Puerto Rico defeated Germany with scores of 85-83. In this game the team was mostly composed of reserve players, while Carlos Arroyo, Daniel Santiago, Larry Ayuso and Carmelo Lee were attending different compromises.^[10] Puerto Rico continued playing with these players, finishing second in the Bamberg Super Cup, losing in the finals to Greece who entered the cup with their entire lineup.^[11] Santiago and Ayuso joined the practices on July 5, 2008. Puerto Rico then traveled to Slovenia, where the Alpos Cup was being held. The first match in this tournament was against New Zealand, whom they defeated 82-74.^[12] In the semifinals the team faced Iran, defeating them 83-80.^[13] Puerto Rico finished second in this cup, losing to Slovenia in the finals.^[14] The Olympic Qualifying Tournament began on July 14, 2008, the team received a "bye" on its first day. Puerto Rico's debut came the following day, defeating Cameroon 81-72, advancing to the second round due to a loss that the African team suffered during the first day of competition. On its second game the team lost to Croatia. In the quarterfinals Puerto Rico defeated Slovenia 81-70.^[15] The team didn't qualify to the Olympics, after losing to Greece in the semifinals and Germany in the tournament's bronze medal game.^[16]

2008-2012

This Olympic cycle began with the 2008 CentroBasket competition. After having failed to classify directly to it, Puerto Rico´s spot was secured after it´s first and only participation in the 2007 CaribeBasket tournament, where Puerto Rico won all round one games by over 25 points and went on to win gold. The 2008 Centrobasket was scheduled to take place before the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, but due to time constraints it was postponed. A group of prospects was included in the roster to replace Peter John Ramos and Ricky Sachez, who were injured. Among those included was Angel Daniel Vasallo, who played as a small forward in Virginia Tech. In the first game of the tournament, Puerto Rico defeated Costa Rica.^[17] In the other two games of the first round, the team defeated Cuba and Panama.^[18][19] During the course of the event, Carlos Arroyo and Larry Ayuso were forced to rest a game due to injuries.^[20] In the semifinals, the team scored a win over the Dominican Republic.^[21] Puerto Rico won the gold medal by defeating the United States Virgin Islands in the finals, with scores of 70-87. The team has secured a spot in the 2010 FIBA World Championship by finishing in 1 of the top 4 spots in the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship. Puerto Rico finished the tournament with the Silver as they lost to Brazil 61-60. Pending the performance at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, this cycle has had Puerto Rico with a record of 19-2 (Caribebasket 6-0, Centrobasket 5-0, FIBA Americas 8-2), not counting the 2nd place finish in the 2009 Marchand Cup.

Uniform

During most of the 1980s and up until the late 1990s, the team wore a solid color uniform, with accent lines and the word "Puerto Rico" written in stylized cursive. Nowadays, the national team's uniform resembles a Puerto Rican flag, but also includes the usual Puerto Rico sign in cursive. The uniforms are red or blue for "visitor" status, and white for "host."

Performance at the FIBA World Championships

Joining FIBA in 1957, Puerto Rico has only been absent from two world championships since its debut in 1959 (1970 and 1982). It failed to qualify for the 2006 Championship, but received one of the four invitations to play. The best performance was at the 1990 Championships, reaching semifinals, but failing to win a medal.

Performance at the Olympic Games

Since joining FIBA in 1957, Puerto Rico has participated in nine Olympic tournaments, coming in fourth in 1964 and achieving history in 2004 when it became the first team in history to defeat a United States' team composed of NBA players. Up to this day, Puerto Rico's win over Team USA represents their biggest margin of loss (19 points) in international competition ever. Since its debut in Olympic basketball in 1960, it has only been absent from 4 Olympic tournaments (1980 because of the boycott, 1984, 2000 and 2008).

Performance at the FIBA Americas Championships

Puerto Rico has participated in all of the FIBA Americas Championships and has gone all the way to the semifinals in all but the 1984 and 2005 tournaments. It has a total of 9 medals.

Since in its creation in 2000, joining together the champions from each of the FIBA Federations, Puerto Rico is yet to participate at the FIBA Diamond Ball Championship, since the USA has won gold in all three Pre-Olympics tournaments.

			Total
4	3	2	9

Performance at the Pan American Games

Since joining FIBA in 1957, Puerto Rico has participated in the basketball competition for all editions of the Pan American Games since 1959, obtaining medals in all but the 1967, 1983 and 1995 games. It has a total of 10 medals.

			Total
1	5	4	10

Performance at the CentroBasket Championships

Puerto Rico is the most dominant team in the CentroBasket Championships, having participated in all of them but 1967 and obtaining a medal in all.

			Total
9	8	3	20

Performance at the Central American and Caribbean Games

Since its basketball debut in the 1935 Games, Puerto has only failed to medal in the 1938, 1946, 1950 Games and more recently in the 1998 Games. The team has a total of 14 medals.^[22]

			Total
5	6	3	14

Performance at the CaribeBasket Championships

Since the founding of the CaribeBasket tournament in 1981 as a CentroBasket qualification stage for Caribbean countries, Puerto Rico has only participated in the 2007 tournament, after failing to classify directly to CentroBasket 2008. In this tournament, it won all round one games by over 25 points and went on to win gold.

Performance at the Goodwill Games

Because the 1986 FIBA World Championship was scheduled to be held at the same time as the 1986 Goodwill Games, the inaugural men's Goodwill Games basketball title was based on results from the World´s.^{[28 ]} For the 2001 games, although scheduled to compete with seven other teams, Puerto Rico was not able to make it to the tournament, being replaced by Mexico, which finished 7^th.^{[29 ][27]}

Performance at other international events

Current squad

The following players have been called up for FIBA Americas Championship 2009, Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico National Basketball Team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age - DOB Ht. Club Club nat. 5.0 C 4 Ramos, Peter John &0000000000000024.00000024 - May 23, 1985(1985-05-23) 87 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) Fujian Xunxing China  2.0 SG 5 Diaz, Guillermo &0000000000000024.00000024 - March 4, 1985(1985-03-04) 74 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Juvecaserta Basket Italy  1.0 PG 6 Rivera, Filiberto &0000000000000026.00000026 - September 28, 1982(1982-09-28) 74 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Brose Baskets Germany  1.0 PG 7 Arroyo, Carlos (C) &0000000000000030.00000030 - July 30, 1979(1979-07-30) 74 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Miami Heat United States  3.0 SF 8 Vassalo, Angel &0000000000000023.00000023 - April 2, 1986(1986-04-02) 78 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) Paris-Levallois Basket France  1.5 G 9 Dalmau, Christian &0000000000000033.00000033 - August 29, 1975(1975-08-29) 76 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) PBC Ural Great Russia  2.0 SG 10 Ayuso, Larry &0000000000000032.00000032 - March 27, 1977(1977-03-27) 75 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Cangrejeros de Santurce Puerto Rico  3.0 SF 11 Sanchez, Ricky &0000000000000022.00000022 - July 6, 1987(1987-07-06) 83 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) CD Maristas-Palencia Spain  5.0 C 12 Villafañe, Luis &0000000000000028.00000028 - June 21, 1981(1981-06-21) 82 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) Gigantes de Carolina Puerto Rico  4.0 PF 13 Reyes, Angelo &0000000000000027.00000027 - September 18, 1981(1981-09-18) 79 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Gigantes de Carolina Puerto Rico  3.0 SF 14 Lee, Carmelo Antrone &0000000000000032.00000032 - June 7, 1977(1977-06-07) 79 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Keravnos Strovolou Cyprus  5.0 C 15 Santiago, Daniel &0000000000000033.00000033 - June 24, 1976(1976-06-24) 85 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) Efes Pilsen Turkey  1.0 PG -- Barea, Jose Juan &0000000000000025.00000025 - June 26, 1984(1984-06-26) 72 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Dallas Mavericks United States 	Head coach Manuel (Manolo) Cintrón Legend (C) Team captain nat field describes country of last club before the tournament Age field is age on August 20, 2009

Rosters

References

External links

• Federación de Baloncesto de Puerto Rico

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