Venezuela national basketball team
The Venezuelan national basketball team represents Venezuela in the men's basketball internationals. It is one of the better teams in Latin America and is a regular participant in the continental finals at the America Basketball Championship. In the early 1990s she also took part in the global finals FIBA World Championship and the Olympic Games in 1992, where they reached their respective best placements including a silver medal at the U.S. Championships. Ten years later she was able to build on these successes and was represented twice again at World Cup finals. After winning the silver medal at the South American Championships, she missed the Olympic qualifying tournament on home soil just barely participate in the basketball competition of the 2012 Olympic Games.
- 3.1 World Championships
- 3.2 The Olympic Games
- 3.3 America Championships
- 3.4 Pan American Games
- 3.5 South American Championships
History
From the mid- 1980s came the Venezuelan selection prior to the tip of the South American national teams and won in American Championship in 1987 their first medal in a continental finals. In the following 1990 finals on the continent of South America in Argentina, the team reached to NBA professional Carl Herrera, capped player Victor Díaz and the naturalized Sam Shepherd eleventh place ahead of Canada, which had previously left in the year behind. The following year they won on home soil for the first time the South American Championship when they defeated Brazil both in the group stage and in the final match 122:121 just one point difference. A year later, they won the Olympic qualifying tournament in Portland (Oregon ), which was interpreted later as America Championship, the silver medal after being defeated the previously undefeated Brazilian in the semifinals. In the final they met the "Dream Team " and lost with 80:127. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, it was enough, however, only two victories over China and the eleventh and penultimate place.
Subsequently, the team reached in the 1990s in the South Championships typically the medal places, but at the continental championships it was not placed in front of the field and thus also missed the part in the global finals. In America Championships from 1999 to 2003 was reached in each case always the fifth place, which was enough to Indianapolis to participate in the 2002 World Cup. There, however, it was only enough to a victory over Algeria and the 14th and third last place. In the U.S. Championship in 2005 for the first time succeeded after more than ten years back a medal win when you could defeat an American student selection in the " small final " for the bronze medal. At the World Cup finals in 2006, the last tournament of the veteran and then 38 -year-old Víctor Díaz, it passed after a defeat against Lebanon only to a victory over Nigeria in the second game. Following the departure after the first round one was classified at the end on the 21st place among 24 participating teams.
The performance at the U.S. Championships after 2006 was rather disappointing. In the 2009 finals would retire from even after the preliminary round, after losing despite a victory over Olympic medalists Argentina against Panama. In the final competition of 2011, however it was enough back to fifth place, which was equivalent to the qualification for the Olympic qualification tournament in 2012. As host of the qualifying tournament in Caracas, the team defeated by NBA professional Greivis Vásquez just to kick off Nigeria and then but lost against Lithuania with double-digit difference. The Lithuanians spared comparatively in the final group game against Nigeria and lost only one-digit difference, so that Venezuela was eliminated because of the poorer direct comparison, while next to Lithuania and Nigeria in the subsequent knock-out matches one of the played three delegate places for was able to secure the Olympic basketball tournament in London. One year after the qualifying tournament Venezuela is once again host the finals at the America Cup 2013.
Current squad
Other well-known players
- Óscar Torres (born 1976 )
- John Cox ( b. 1981 )
- Greivis Vásquez (* 1987)
- Gregory Echenique (* 1990)
Performance in international competitions
World Championships
Olympic games
America Championships
- 2003 - 5th place
- 2005 -. space
- 2007 - 8th Place
- 2009 - 9th place
- 2011 - 5th place
Pan American Games
By 2011 - or not qualified
South American Championships
To 1976 - did not take part
- 2008 -. space
- 2010 - 4th place
- 2012 -. space