Venezuelan national basketball team

World championships
Venezuela Venezuela
Venezuela
Association	FVB
FIBA member since	1938
FIBA world rankings	22nd
Trainer	Néstor García
Record player	Víctor David Díaz
Participation in the finals	3
Best results	11th place ( 1990 )
Olympic games
Participation in the finals	2
Best results	11th place ( 1992 ), qualified ( 2016 )
Continental championships
championship	American Championship
Participation in the finals	13
Best results	. Course ( 2015 ) . Course ( 1992 ) . Place ( 2005 )
(As of September 13, 2015)

The Venezuelan national basketball team for men represents Venezuela in international basketball matches. She is one of the better national teams in Latin America and is a regular participant in the continental finals at the American Basketball Championship . In the early 1990s, she also took part in the global finals of the World Basketball Championship and the 1992 Olympic Games , where she achieved her best placings including a silver medal at the American Championships. It was not until ten years later that she was able to build on this success and was again represented twice at the World Cup finals. After winning the silver medal at the South American Championships, she barely missed participation in the basketball competition of the 2012 Olympic Games in front of her own audience at the Olympic qualifying tournament .

history

From the mid-1980s, the Venezuelan selection advanced to the top of the South American national teams and won their first medal in a continental finals at the 1987 American Championships . At the following World Cup finals in 1990 on the South American continent in Argentina , the team around NBA professional Carl Herrera , record national player Victor Díaz and the naturalized Sam Shepherd reached eleventh place ahead of Canada , which they had left behind the year before. In the following year they won the South American Championship for the first time in front of their own audience , when they defeated Brazil by just one point in both the group phase and the final with 122: 121. A year later you won the Olympic qualifying tournament in Portland (Oregon) , which was later counted as the American Championship, the silver medal after you could defeat the previously undefeated Brazilians in the semifinals. In the final they met the “ Dream Team ” and lost with 80: 127. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , on the other hand, there were only two victories over China and eleventh and penultimate place.

Subsequently, in the 1990s, the team usually reached the medal positions at the South American Championships, but in the continental championships they were not placed in the front field and thus also missed participation in global finals. At the American Championships from 1999 to 2003 you always reached fifth place, which was enough to participate in the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis . There it was only enough to win over Algeria and finish 14th and third from last. At the American Championship in 2005 , a medal was won for the first time in more than ten years, when a selection of American students was defeated in the “small final” for the bronze medal. At the 2006 World Cup , the last tournament for veteran and then 38-year-old Víctor Díaz, after an opening defeat against Lebanon, it was only enough to win over Nigeria in the second game. After the elimination after the preliminary round you were classified in the end on the 21st place among 24 participating teams.

The performance at the American Championships after 2006 was rather disappointing. In the final round in 2009 they were eliminated after the preliminary round after losing to Panama despite a victory over the Olympic medalist Argentina . In the final round in 2011 , however, it was enough again to fifth place, which was equivalent to qualifying for the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament. As the host of the qualifying tournament in Caracas , the team around NBA professional Greivis Vásquez narrowly defeated Nigeria at the beginning and then lost to Lithuania by a double-digit difference. The Lithuanians spared themselves comparatively in the final group game against Nigeria and only lost by a single-digit difference, so that Venezuela was eliminated because of the poorer direct comparison , while in addition to Lithuania, Nigeria also won one of the three participant places in the subsequent knockout games secured the Olympic basketball tournament in London. One year after the qualifying tournament, Venezuela was again the host of a final round at the 2013 American Championships , when Vásquez, but with the naturalized Donta Smith, missed the medal round and thus qualification for the final round of the 2014 World Cup only because of the poorer direct comparison .

After winning the second title at a South American Championship in 2014, the Argentine coach Néstor García led the selection without the star players Vásquez and Smith in the medal round of the American Championship 2015 . Surprisingly and controversially in the final seconds, they defeated the unbeaten Canadians except for one opening defeat against Argentina and qualified directly for the 2016 Olympic basketball tournament . After Mexico had won the title for the first time in Venezuela two years earlier, the “underdog” from Venezuela finally triumphed over the Argentinian selection in the final and won the title at an American championship in Mexico City for the first time.

Squad

Venezuela's squad at the 2016 Olympic Games

player
No.	Surname	birth	size	info	Calls	society
		Guards ( PG , SG )
5	Gregory Vargas	02/18/1986	182			France SLUC Nancy Basket
8th	David Cubillán	07/27/1987	183			Trotamundos de Carabobo
19th	Heissler Guillent	12/17/1986	183			Guaros de Lara
		Forwards ( SF , PF )
2	Dwight Lewis	07.10.1987	198			Trotamundos de Carabobo
6th	John Cox	06/07/1981	196			Bucaneros de la Guaira
10	José Vargas	01/23/1982	196	(C)		Marinos de Anzoátegui
14th	Miguel Ruiz	December 20, 1990	202			Trotamundos de Carabobo
23	Anthony Perez	09/29/1993	205			United States Ole Miss Rebels ( NCAA )
43	Néstor Colmenares	09/05/1987	203			Guaros de Lara
		Center ( C )
0	Gregory Echenique	11/23/1990	206			Guaros de Lara
4th	Miguel Marriaga	06/06/1984	206			Marinos de Anzoategui
15th	Windi Graterol	09/10/1986	205			Guaros de Lara