Buenos Aires (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) - Argentina's Basketball Confederation (CABB) will hold the jersey retirement ceremony for Andrés "Chapu" Nocioni - one of its most emblematic national team players - on February 26, during the World Cup Qualifiers game against Paraguay in the city of Olavarria.

The "Number 13" jersey was front and center in the greatest feat accomplished by the Argentines: the gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, which was followed by the bronze in Beijing 2008; and also the titles of the 2001 Tournament of the Americas in Neuquen and the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship in Mar del Plata, as well as second place in the 2002 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Indianapolis, when history began for the Golden Generation, a group that started to fall apart after the retirement of the players that were able to gain the hearts of basketball fans around the world.

Nocioni announced his retirement from the National Team after the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and retired from the court in June of 2017, while wearing the Real Madrid jersey of Spain's Liga ACB. "Chapu" - as he is commonly known - is, with his 121 games played and 1364 points in 15 competitions, the third player with the most games for the National Team, just behind the team's current captain, Luis Scola, and former player Leonardo Gutiérrez.

The Heart of the Golden Generation - as he is also called - will be a part of the ceremony that will take place during the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers, a date that will forever be a part of the history of Argentina's basketball, when the number 13 jersey is retired and immortalized.

FIBA