Argentina men's national basketball team


The Argentina national basketball team represents Argentina in men's international basketball officially nicknamed The Argentine Soul, and it is controlled by the Argentine Basketball Federation.
Argentina's national basketball team remains among the most successful in the Americas. It is the only national team in the FIBA Americas zone that has won the quintuplet crown: FIBA World Cup, Olympic Gold Medal , FIBA Diamond Ball, FIBA AmeriCup and Pan American Gold Medal. They have also won 13 South American Basketball Championships, as well as many youth championships.
The Argentine representative was also the first to defeat a United States national team with a full squad of NBA players. They did so by 87–80 in the 2002 FIBA World Championship held in Indianapolis. In that tournament, Argentina came second behind FR Yugoslavia, losing the final in overtime.
Due to the series of good results since the beginning of the 2000s, Argentina reached the first position in the FIBA Men's Ranking at the end of the 2008 Olympic Games. Argentina is a founding member of the International Federation of Basketball and has South America's longest basketball tradition.

History

The practice of basketball in Argentina was started by Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes in 1912., with the first Federation established to organise competitions not only in Buenos Aires but in several cities around Argentina. Argentina played its first international game against Uruguay in 1921.
In 1950 Argentina won its first and only World Championship to date, with a squad formed entirely by amateur players, after defeating France, Brazil, Chile, Egypt and the United States in the decisive match.
With the creation of the Liga Nacional de Básquet in the mid-1980s, a new generation of players led Argentina to a moderate success in the 1986 World Championship where the squad defeated United States for the first time in their history. Nevertheless, the progress of Argentine basketball would be shown in 2002 FIBA World Championship being the first team to defeat a United States roster composed entirely of NBA players and also reaching the final, finally lost to Yugoslavia.
2001 was the year when the Golden Generation raised, winning the first Argentina's FIBA Americas Championship -held in Neuquen-, where they defeated all of its rivals in the competition. In 2002 the team made history by being the first team to defeat a United States roster composed entirely of NBA players during the 2002 FIBA World Championship. Argentina would reach the finals for the first time since the first World Championship in 1950, But the most important achievement for the squad came in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens when Argentina won their first gold medal. The Olympics title in 2004 is the higher honor and important title of Argentina in the history of the sport in the country.

Uniform

Evolution

Since its establishment, the Argentina national team had worn white kits. In 2002, two light blue horizontal stripes were added to the jerseys. In 2014, Argentina adopted a vertical striped model, in the style of football and field hockey representatives. The jersey debuted in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Honours

Olympic Games

FIBA World Cup

FIBA Diamond Ball

FIBA AmeriCup

South American Championship

Pan American Games

Players

Current roster

Past roster

The roster for the 2019 World Cup.
Source:

Depth chart

Retired numbers

In July 2017, the Argentine Basketball Confederation announced that numbers 5 and 13 would be retired since the 2017 edition of FIBA AmeriCup and for the rest of championships played by the senior team from then on.

Head coach position for the major tournaments

: