We are recalling all foreign players that have ever played in the League, telling about foreign championships and National teams of different countries in World basketball map project. Today we will tell about basketball in Dominican Republic.
Population: 10.7 mln
Players in the history of League: 1
Full list of players: Louis Flores.
The only Dominican in the history of VTB League is ex-Budivelnik guard Louis Flores. He signed with the Ucrainian club in 2011/12 as a America Cup bronze medalist. Flores’ record in the League is 2 games with total of 30 points.
Flores’ professional bio is a long story, for sure. In 2003, as a Manhattan university student, he won silver medals of Centrobasket and Panamerican games with Dominican Republic national team. In 2004, Louis was selected 55th overall at the NBA draft, played 16 games for Golden State and Denver. In 2009, he became Israeli league top scorer and signed with Samara’s Krasnye Krylia right after that. Apart from the NBA, Russia, Ucraine and Israel, Flores played in Spain, Italy, Greece, Finland, Mexico, Venezuela and Dominican Republic.
Basketball in Dominican Republic
League: Liga Nacional de Baloncesto (LNB)
Founded: 2005
Number of teams: 6
League’s web-site: http://www.lnb.com.do/
Dominican league is one of the youngest in the world as this year, it only turned 15. There were 8 clubs before 2017, and today the league features 6 teams of 5 cities. They all were founded in 2005.
Within these 15 years, 6 teams have won the title, 8 got silver medals. Metros de Santiago have the most number of titles (5). Plus, the most popular Dominican club plays at the largest arena of the country: Gran Arena del Cibao with the capacity of 8768 spectators.
The final series are played in a best-of-seven format, plus there are 2 annual awards: regular season MVP and final MVP. The American and Dominican players are among the holders of these awards.
Ex-national team players also hold many championship records. Adris de Leon set LNB scoring (54) and three-pointers records (11), 2004 Centrobasket champion Jack Michael Martinez holds rebounding record (27), 2014 World Cup participant Juan Coronado is an unbeaten assister (15).
Interesting fact
On July 4th, 2012 Dominican Republic national team played Russia in the qualification for London Olympic Games. Russia won the match (84:69).
Russia’s leader Adnrey Kirilenko scored 16 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists, while best Dominican player Al Horford marked 22 points and 9 rebounds.
Dominican Republic National team
FIBA rank: 19
FIBA members: since 1954
Achievements: 3-time Centrobasket winners (1977, 2004, 2012), AmeriCup bronze (2011)
Despite the fact that the Dominican Republic won Centrobasket in 1977 and 2004, the team’s main highlights are recorded within the last decade.
With the main stars (Al Horford and Francisco Garcia) and young talent (Karl-Anthony Towns) and acclaimed head coach (John Calipari, Hall of Fame member), Dominican national team managed to get their first AmeriCup medals in 2011 and win Centrobasket one year later.
Morover, in 2014 and 2019 the Dominicans qualified for World Cups. They were 13th of 24 in Spain and 16th of 32 in China.
Today, Dominican national team is in world’s top 20, being ranked higher than Canada, Nigeria, Latvia and China.
The most famous Dominican players in history
Al Horford. 2007 NBA draft 3rd pick, 2-time NCAA champion, 5-time NBA All-Star participant. The center has already spent 12 seasons in the NBA, won 2012 Centrobasket and bronze of 2011 AmeriCup with the national team.
Karl-Anthony Towns. 2015 NBA draft 1st pick, Rookie of the year (2016) and 2-time NBA All-Star participant. Won 2012 Centrobasket with the Dominican national team.
Francisko Garcia. No. 2 Dominican in the history of NBA (after Al Horford) by seasons played (10) and games played (549). From 2005 to 2014 Garcia played for Sacramento and Houston, and finished his career in 2017 with LNB’s Indios de San Francisco.
Charlie Villanueva. 2005 draft 7th pick, NCAA champion with Connecticut university. Villanueva was born in the USA, but played for the Dominican Republic; he spent 11 seasons in the NBA with Toronto, Milwaukee, Detroit and Dallas.
Tito Horford. Father of Al Horford, the first Dominican to play in the NBA. Tito was selected 39th at 1988 draft and played 3 seasons in the Association with Milwaukee and Washington.
Dmitriy Kolinov
