National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico
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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 8 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 2004, the Ponce Lions won their twelfth franchise BSN title by beating the Coamo Marathon Runners, who were making their first franchise trip to the finals, four games to three, with a game seven score of 92-77. The Lions trail the Vaqueros de Bayamon and Atleticos de San German in all time championships; those two franchises are tied with thirteen titles apiece.
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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 tumbled baseball as the Puerto Rican fan's 2nd favorite sport after boxing at that time.
The fact that WAPA-TV channel 4 transmitted 6 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 pm, Sundays at 9 pm, Wednesday nights at 9, Friday nights at 9, and Saturdays at 2 pm and at 9 pm.
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
- Carolina Giants
- Cayey Little Bulls
- Coamo Marathon Runners
- Isabela Cockerels
- Mayagüez Indians
- Morovis Titans
- Ponce Lions
- Quebradillas Pirates
- Santurce Crabbers
- San Germán Athletics