A glimpse into Bahia Blanca, the basketball capital that will hosts Group B

ARGENTINA (FIBA AmeriCup 2017) - The City of Bahia Blanca will host Group B of the FIBA AmeriCup 2017 starting next Sunday, August 27. There, the Argentina, Venezuela, Canada and Virgin Islands will face off. This is a city full of basketball history and is the hometown of well-known personalities in this sport’s community.

According to legend, Bahia Blanca was the first place in the country where basketball was played, when in 1910 a few US American sailors had the desire to play ball in the city's docks, and from that point on others kept copying the game.

Bahia hosted historic games, most notably the 1979 South American Tournament that established the national team. The side counted on Bahia native Alberto Pedro Cabrera, better known as “Beto”. The city's main avenue carries his name and his image is immortalized in the Osvaldo Casanova Stadium. That same venue hosted most of the greatest moments in Bahia Blanca’s basketball history. It was also there where the Argentine National Team got silver at the 1999 South American Tournament, where Luis Scola and Andrés Nocioni played for the first time. Also present at that tournament was Emanuel Ginóbili, who two years later brought home the Gold Medal from the 2014 Olympic Games in Athens next to two other Bahienses: Alejandro Montecchia and Juan “Pepe” Sánchez.

Other well-known names such as Juan Espil, Marcelo Richotti, Sebastián Ginóbili and Hernán Jasen —all of whom are former National Team members— also stand out in Bahia Blanca’s basketball history. Coaches Sergio “Oveja” Hernández and Néstor “Che” García, who today lead the Argentines and Venezuelans in this AmeriCup’s Group B, also are this city's natives. These are precisely the same two teams that in the last edition of the Americas Tournament played the Final. The Venezuelans were crowned as champions and will defend their title starting this Sunday.

Rumor has it that Bahia Blanca is the city that breathes basketball...

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