MEX - Mendez saved by basketball

CARACAS (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Mexico point guard Orlando Mendez owes his life to basketball, not only because he plays the game professionally, but also because it took him away from what could have been a terrible life - or even death.

Mendez has done his part in return, helping his team qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"We play for the Mexican flag, for our country, there is a whole country behind us," he said.

"It has been a couple of years of preparation to play this style of basketball we are playing. We started to win against teams that used to beat us in the region. Now we can play up to their level.

"Mexico is now among the elite teams of FIBA Americas. It has been a tough road for us to reach this mark."

For the 27-year-old native of Texas, getting to play in Spain in 2014 will be a dream-like situation.

After growing up in an environment of drugs and crime in his 'Bermuda Triangle' barrio, he was not supposed to reach this level of success. His brothers fell into crime's hands, but he did not.

"Participating in a World Cup is everything to me," he said.

"It's something that I have always seen while sitting down and thinking 'I wish I had the chance to play at that level'. Now that we are here I think once again that anything can happen.

"Mexico needed to be there and I truly hope that the whole country is behind us."

Mendez, who plays professional basketball in the Mexican League for Pioneros de Quintana Roo, overcame a tough upbringing.

The NBA's San Antonio Spurs had a league called "Spurs Drug-Free League" (now called Spurs Youth Basketball League).

"The league is something that gave me a lot of things," Mendez recalled.

"I also suffered a lot, with my family suffering the life of our neighborhood, and it was tough.

"With God and faith, and the help of a father figure like Abel Valdez, I came around and became successful and still have many things to accomplish."

Mendez feels a duty of his own.

"It's a responsibility that I have with the kids. I do it for my family, to give them the opportunities I never had," he explained.

"The league, my coaches and other persons (Valdez) gave me the power to come out of my neighborhood. In it, all we knew were bad things, drugs and death.

"I want to change things for the kids still live there. All I have is because of basketball."

As a way to thank Abel Valdez, Mendez took his last name and made it his, becoming, Orlando Mendez-Valdez.

Valdez took the playmaker out of his barrio and helped him attend Western Kentucky University.

Having helped Mexico qualify for next year's FIBA Basketball World Cup - the country's first appearance in FIBA's flagship event since 1974 - Mendez on Tuesday will look to help his team get past Americas powerhouse Argentina and into the Final of the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship.

For full and in-depth coverage of the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship, go to the official website http://www.caracas2013.com/en/default.asp?lang=en.

FIBA