Basketball in Venezuela

Venezuela is officially called as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and it is found at the northern coast of South America.

Their capital city is the Caracas and the official language is Spanish. They have a population of 29 million. Venezuelans are considered also as Hispanic or Latino or Spanish.

Venezuela’s major sports are baseball and football. Basketball is not that famous in the country though they have a National Basketball League and National Basketball Team. The Venezuelan Basketball Association is the body the controls the men’s and women’s basketball teams. Their main national basketball league is Liga Professional de Baloncesto which currently have 10 teams.

The Liga Professional de Baloncesto is composed of the following teams: Cocodrilos de Caracas, Guaiqueries de Margarita, Trotamundos de Carabobo, Panteras de Miranda, Marinos de Anzoategui, Gaiteros del Zulia, Guaros de Lara, Toros de Aragua, Gigantes de Guayana and Bucaneros de La Guaira.

It was founded in the year 1974. The most recent champion is the Cocodrilos de Caracas and the runner-up is Marinos de Anzoategui.

Venezuela has also produced few players that joined the NBA. They are Carlos Herrera and Oscar Torres.

Oscar Torres, born on December 18, 1976 in Caracas, Valenzuela is a professional basketball player that is also the first Venezuelan basketball player to ever played in the NBA history. He was signed by the Houston Rockets in the 2001-2002 season. Torres just averaged 6.0 points per game and he had a career high in scoring with 28 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers on December 11, 2001.

In the next season, he played for the Golden State Warriors and he averaged 3.1 ppg. Then he went to Europe to play with BC Khimki that he led to the 2006 EuroCup finals but lost to DKV Joventut. He played also played for the Venezuelan national team in the year 2002 and 2006 for the FIBA World Championship.

Venezuelan National Basketball team is ranked 22nd in the FIBA World rankings. They are joined in the FIBA Americas and they have only 1 Olympic appearance. They have participated in 3 FIBA World Championships but they have not yet won a medal. In FIBA Americas, they won silver on 1992 and bronze on 2005.

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