CORDOBA (FIBA AmeriCup 2017) – Ángel Rivera portrays poise and confidence despite his 5 feet, 7 inches. Perhaps it’s an analogy of what happens with his team, the Virgin Islands: a small country that was the biggest surprise of the FIBA AmeriCup 2017 with their achieved pass to the Final Four, where they’ll face the United States this Saturday.

“Being in the Final Four has an immense value for Virgin Islands. But this is not enough, we want to win a medal,” said an optimistic Rivera, who missed the first phase of the tournament in Bahía Blanca and came directly to Córdoba. “Maybe the United States come in strong, but probably a bit over-confident. And at the court, it’s five against five. We have the passion and the desire to win,” he adds.

To understand the greatest achievement of Virgin Islands in continental basketball —which also meant their ticket to the 2019 Pan American Games—, Rivera sets certain guidelines that give this Final Four qualification a heroic dimension. “There are only two good courts where we can practice, and one of them had a broken rim this time. Only one was left. If you look at our uniforms, you’ll notice they’re super old. And we don’t have fitness trainers either, so our coach has to do a little bit of everything," he said.

"Nobody gave us anything. If we’re in the Final Four it’s because we have a lot of confidence in ourselves. That’s why we’ve achieved what our National Team has never done before," he emphasized.

Later, the NCAA’s Stetson University player reveals a promise his teammates made: "We were always in contact through our phones. And the group had promised me they would do everything so that we could be in the Final Four and I could join them. They said: ‘We told you we would do it’. When I arrived here in Córdoba, I sensed a lot of emotions and a feeling that we’ve never experienced before with this team," concluded an emotional Rivera.

FIBA