Baloncesto Superior Nacional

BSN stands for Baloncesto Superior Nacional De Puerto Rico, or Puerto Rican Superior National Basketball League. It was established in 1933, and it has produced a handful of NBA players and a lot of classic games and emotive moments to it's fans.

The BSN league has had teams in many cities, althought for economical reasons, they prefer to stay within Puerto Rico's larger towns. Each year, the regular season is played to a lenght of either 30 or 33 games per team, and then there is a round robin pitting the best 8 teams of the season, after which the best 4 start the semi-final series, to be played to a best of 7, followed by the finals, also to a best of 7.

Last year, 2 of history's best teams, the Leones De Ponce with 11 championships, and the Vaqueros De Bayamon with 13, reached the final series, and Ponce won the championship in 7 games.

the Vaqueros are tied with the Atleticos De San German for the most championships all time.

The BSN was a struggling league economically until the 80's, when, with Genaro 'Tuto' Marchand as President, an explosion of basketball popularity happened all over the island of Puerto Rico. Basketball tumbled Baseball as the Puerto Rican fan's 2nd favorite sport after boxing at that time.

The fact that WAPA-TV channel 4 transmitted 6 games a week for the whole island to see, really helped a lot too. These games were shown Sundays at 2 pm, Sundays at 9 pm, Wednesday nights at 9, Friday nights at 9, and Saturdays at 2 pm and at 9 pm. Since the whole island is on the same time period, everyone could watch these games live.

During that time, legends like Mario ''Quijote'' Morales, Raymond Dalmau, Jose ''Piculin'' Ortiz, Jerome Mincy, Georgie Torres, Angelo Cruz, Angel ''Cachorro'' Santiago, Federico ''Fico'' Lopez and Ruben Rodriguez showcased their talents to all Puerto Rican tv viewers and game goers.

After Hetin Reyes took the league over, there have been economical problems, but this might be due to the fact that the cost of life has increased. Nevertheless, the league continues to operate with 16 franchises and is looking at the future with optimism.