In Search of World Championship,
FIBA Americas First Step
With the best team ever assembled DR looks toward Turkey 2010
By Emmanuel Espinal
In the sports world, Dominican Republic is known as the baseball cradle, but this August a group of men looks demonstrate that basketball is also played. Today August 26, 2009 the Dominican National Team will embark on their journey with the start of the FIBA Americas 2009 tournament. This team will go in search of a spot to the world championship, which the Dominican Republic has only taken part of once. Its only participation took place in 1978 where it finished in twelfth place.
The national team caused a stir this summer with the solicitation for national citizenship of two NBA players, Charlie Villanueva and Trevor Ariza. Charlie Villanueva was granted citizenship in order to satisfy the requisites to play with name Dominican Republic over his chest, which is for him a dream come true. With the acceptance to the team of Villanueva (Detroit Pistons) and the participation of Francisco Garcia (Sacramento Kings), Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) and Luis Flores (played with Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets), all with NBA experience, this team becomes the best assembled by the Dominican Republic. The last team that had any NBA experience of this magnitude was the 2005 team that was comprised of Luis Flores, Francisco Garcia and Felipe Lopez. They finished sixth in the tournament with a 3-4 record.
The past weekend the national team played a friendly warm up series of two games with the Puerto Rican National Team, which DR swept. The first game was played the 15 of August, at the Polideportivo Fabio Rafael González in Puerto Plata, where DR won with a score of 92-76. Francisco Garcia scored 22 points, Charlie Villanueva 19 and Al Horford 12 for the victory. The next night, August the16th, DR again won in the Cibao Arena in Santiago with a score of 104-94. Garcia scored 19, Villanueva and Horford each scored 17 a piece.
Until yesterday there was no official roster due to the situation with Josh Asselin’s eligibility to play for the team due to the fact that FIBA does not allow the participation of more than one player nationalized from one country. The council revoked the petition of the Dominican Republic which eliminated the possibility of his participation with the national team. Dominican Republic will start tournament play today at 4:00pm in San Juan against the tournament favorite, Brazil.
Dominican Republic is part of group B that is comprised of Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, and Argentina. The roster that the Puerto Rican coach Julio Toro will have is comprised of:
Juan Coronado PG Carlos Morbán PG
Luís Flores SG Francisco García SG
Kelvin Peña SG Ricardo Greer SF
Jack Michael Martínez PF Franklin Western SF
Charlie Villanueva PF Marlon Martínez PF
Alejandro Salas C Al Horford C