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San Germán Athletics (Los Atleticos de San Germán) is a basketball team from Puerto Rico.
San German had won nine championships from 1932 to 1950, and one in 2004.
Following the 1985 championship San German began to develop many young, talented players who would later lead them to several more championships, the first coming in 1991 when development of these players peaked. Under the guidance and stellar play of Ortiz, los Atleticos won their second championship in six years. The 1991 team, however was quite different to the '85 team. It was very young (with the exception of Ortiz) and for that reason received the nickname of "Los Nenes y el Tio." It included Eddie Casiano, Nelson Quinones and Luis Allende, the core of Los Atleticos who won the championship in 1994.
Soon after, public feuds between Ortiz and the team owner led the star center to move to Europe to play in Greece. The young players then reaching the height of their careers then won another championship for San German. In 1997, Eddie Casiano carried the team to victory over an underdog Carolina team. The great play of Ron Draper and Antonio Watson alongside Casiano led San German to their league leading 13th championship.
A change of ownership and more disputes eventually led San German to trade Eddie Casiano to Ponce. Ortiz returned from Europe, but was then traded to Santurce. Both players have won champioships with their respective teams while San German is still in the hunt for the 14th championship. San German is now led by Christian Dalmau and Elias Larry Ayuso. These two players, now on the National team, hope to break a seven year drought in 2005 and bring the championship back to San German.
External links
- atleticos.org (http://www.atleticos.org) - official site (in Spanish)