National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico
Encyclopedia : N : NA : NAT : National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico
The National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico —or Liga Baloncesto Superior Nacional De Puerto Rico (BSN) in Spanish— was established in 1933 and has produced a handful of NBA players and a lot of classic games and emotive moments to its fans.
The BSN league has had teams in many cities, although for economical reasons, they prefer to stay within Puerto Rico's larger towns. Each year, the regular season is played to a length of either 30 or 33 games per team, and then there is a round robin pitting the best 6 teams of the season, after which the best 4 start the semi-final series, to be played to a best of 7, followed by the finals, also to a best of 7.
In 2005, the Arecibo Captains won their second franchise BSN title, and first since 1959, by beating the Bayamon Cowboys, four games to none, with a game four score of 88-84.
The Cowboys, or Vaqueros, and the Atleticos de San German are leaders in all time championships; those two franchises are tied with thirteen titles apiece. The Ponce Lions have twelve.
History
The BSN was a struggling league economically until the 1980s, when, with Genaro 'Tuto' Marchand as President, an explosion of basketball popularity happened all over Puerto Rico. Basketball overtook baseball as the Puerto Rican fans' second favorite sport after boxing at that time.The fact that WAPA-TV Channel 4 transmitted six games a week for the whole island to see, was a major contributor to this change in popularity. These games were shown Sundays at 2 p.m., Sundays at 9 p.m., Wednesday nights at 9, Friday nights at 9, and Saturdays at 2 p.m. and at 9 p.m..
During that time, legends like Mario 'Quijote' Morales, Raymond Dalmau, Jose 'Piculin' Ortiz, Jerome Mincy, Georgie Torres, Angelo Cruz, Angel 'Cachorro' Santiago, Federico 'Fico' Lopez and Ruben Rodriguez showcased their talents to all Puerto Rican TV viewers and game goers.
After Hetin Reyes took the league over there were economic problems, but in part this is due to the rise in the cost of living. Nevertheless, the league continues to operate with 9 franchises but is looking at the future with optimism.
Currently, the leagues games are showcased on Puerto Rico's Deportes 13 television channel.
Although some conssesions have been made, even offering Santurce fans free rides on the Tren Urbano train system so that they can attend away games at Bayamon, the league continued suffering monetary loss in 2005, and the basketball tournament was drastically reduced to only nine competing teams. In order to try to attract more fans to the venues in which the tournament is being played, the league informed, on May of that year that they would join the Puerto Rican hand ball association, to create a type of game where both basketball players and hand ballers would have to play one half of hand ball and, on the second half, basketball.
Teams
- Arecibo Captains
- Bayamón Cowboys
- Caguas Creoles Current champions
- Coamo Marathon Runners
- Guayama Wizards
- Guaynabo Conquistadores
- Humacao Grays
- Morovis Titans
- Ponce Lions
- San Germán Athletics
- Santurce Crabbers Runner-up
See also
External links
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