Puerto Rico’s Basketball Tradition: A Brief History

Throughout most of the 20^th century, the most popular sports in Puerto Rico were boxing and baseball. It was not until the early 1980s that basketball challenged these two sports’ status as the favorites on the island. With the constantly improving national team and the presence of the BSN league as a powerful professional sports organization, basketball imposed itself over baseball to become the second most popular sport in Puerto Rico. In 1988, José “Piculín” Ortiz, formerly of Oregon State University, was selected 15^th by the Utah Jazz in the NBA draft, becoming the first born and raised Puerto Rican athlete to sign for an NBA team. In this same year, Dick Versace, whose mother was Puerto Rican, became coach of the Indiana Pacers. The biggest explosion of the basketball fever in the island began in the early 21^st century. Daniel Santiago and Carlos Arroyo, BSN standouts and National Team regulars, signed contracts with the Phoenix Suns and the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, respectively. As a result of these signings, both players received plenty of media attention and were elevated to national hero and role model status on the island of four million.

Despite having a history of performing well in international competition, the Puerto Rican national basketball team accomplished its greatest feat when it defeated the United States “Dream Team” of NBA stars 93-74 in the first game of the 2004 Olympics, giving the Americans their first loss since NBA players were allowed to participate, and the most lopsided defeat in U.S. Olympic basketball history. Puerto Rican basketball fans, while traditionally loyal to their national team despite their political affiliations (nearly 50% of the population favors the idea of Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. state), took notice immediately of the team’s amazing achievement. This led to an increased sense of cultural identity and pride, and further contributed to basketball’s status as a vital part of Puerto Rican culture.

Of course, the biggest irony in all this is that even though Puerto Rico is a United States territory, it is an autonomous nation when it comes to sports. Regardless, many of those who advocate statehood are some of our teams’ biggest supporters, perhaps unaware that if the island became a state we would lose all international athletic representation. 

Since basketball came to us as a byproduct of the colonization process, it may be viewed as yet another example of Americanization, but its increased popularity has elevated it to the status of Puerto Rican pastime. This makes it seem like our fondness of the sport has always been a part of us, but it also means that many people have no knowledge of how and when we began to play it. 

Even though the national team is highly regarded in Puerto Rico, many young players in the island aspire to be like their American basketball heroes. When a kid wants to learn to play basketball, it is more likely that his ultimate goal is to play in the NBA rather than the BSN. The important thing one should be aware of is that this occurs because of the NBA’s role as the premier professional basketball league, not because of a desire to “be more American”. Sports have the ability to transcend social, cultural, and political barriers, and in Puerto Rico, this is precisely what basketball has accomplished in the last quarter of a century.