National Superior Basketball

Infobox sports league

pixels = 150px
caption = National Superior Basketball logo
sport = Basketball
founded = 1933
motto = "Aqui si se juega"' (Here its really played)
teams = 12 for the 2008 Season (13 in the 2007 season)
country = Puerto Rico
champion = Arecibo Captains
folded =
website = [http://www.bsnpr.com/ www.bsnpr.com]

National Superior Basketball —or "Baloncesto Superior Nacional" (BSN) in Spanish— is the main Puerto Rican men's basketball league. It currently has 12 teams, but has had many teams in several cities of the island. The league was established in 1932. It has produced players that have distinguished themselves in the NBA, European Leagues, and other leagues.

Each team plays 30 or 33 games per season. The regular season is followed by a round robin pitting the best 8 teams against each other, then the best four teams compete in a semi-final series playing for the best of seven games. The season concludes with the finals, here two teams compete in the best of seven games.

The Bayamon Cowboys are the current leaders in all time championships with fourteen. The San German Athletics have thirteen, and 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, other legends followed in the footsteps of Juan "Pachin" Vicens (Named Greatest Basketball Player in the World at the Basketball World Championship, held in Santiago, Chile, 1959). Among those younger stars, various bright stars soon emerged, such as Mario 'Quijote' Morales, Raymond Dalmau, Jose 'Piculin' Ortiz, Jerome Mincy, Georgie Torres, Angelo Cruz, Angel Santiago, the late Federico 'Fico' Lopez and Ruben Rodriguez showcased their talents to all of Puerto Rico's 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 13 franchises but is looking at the future with optimism.

Currently, the leagues games are showcased on Puerto Rico's TUTV 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.

For the 2007 Season, the Morovis team moved to Fajardo and two teams joined back the league, Mayagüez Indians and Carolina Giants.

2008-present

Prior to the inauguration of the 2008 season, Henry Neumann rennounced the president's chair and entered politics. Felix "Felo" Rivera, at the moment owner of the Caguas Creoles was selected to succeed him. Rivera debuted as president on September 22, 2007, when he presided a reunion with most of the league's staff and other members of the sports community in Puerto Rico.cite book| title=BSN: Debuta 'Felo' Rivera| author=Carlos Rosa Rosa| publisher=El Nuevo Día| location=Puerto Rico| chapter=Deportes| language=Spanish| date=2007-09-23| pages=136] The reunion extended to ten hours and served primarily as a ceremony to officially present him as the BSN president. Several changes to the league's rules were discussed, with two being adopted. The first one being a 50% penalty to franchises with payrolls larger than the $500,000 top. This had been approved before in 2004 and only Santurce and Ponce failed to meet the salary top, however it was abandoned following the conclusion of that season. The main difference was that in the new rule the money that the league received with the penalty would be awarded to teams that dodn't violate the top. The second rule approved was that restrictions on second "reforce" players were dropped, noting that the quality of immigrant players was supposed to rise. In the reunion the league announced that the 2008 tournament would be inaugurated on March 1, 2008, earlier than in previous years. When September concluded Miguel Laborde was replaced by Juan Trinidad as the BSN's tournament director.

Teams

Round Robin Group A

Round Robin Group B

Semi Finals

The Santurce Crabbers defeat the Fajardo Cariduros 4-1

" 98-83, 98-80, 78-85, 95-83, 90-87 "

The Arecibo Captains defeat the Guayama Wizards 4-2

" 84-87, 93-86, 92-89, 84-82, 95-77, 92-89 "

Finals

The Santurce Crabbers defeat the Arecibo Captains 4-3

" 88-78, 89-86, 91-85, 84-73, 83-75, 93-81, 102-97, OT "

" The SANTURCE CRABBERS are the 2007 BSN Champions (7th Championship) "

ee also

* Puerto Rican national basketball team

References

External links

* [http://www.bsnpr.com Official Site] - (in Spanish)