An increasingly attractive League of the Americas, get to know it!

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With the Intercontinental titles obtained by Guaros de Lara and Flamengo, the continental basketball competition continues to rise

As the Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana began, generating so much boom in the Latin American continent for football, the famous and relevant League of the Americas (LDA) has begun to do of its own as far as basketball is concerned.

Exactly in 2007, in replacement of the former Pan-American Club Championship, the first jump between two of the aforementioned race took place and with only 12 editions to its credit, including this year's, it has taken it to the highest point in the world the name of important Latin clubs even above European teams.

Leer en español: Una Liga de las Américas cada vez más atractiva ¡conózcala!

An example of this is the team from Flamengo (Brazil) for the 2014 edition when they won the Interconfessional Cup at Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) with a final score of 90-77, winning the title of the Argentine base Today, he plays in the Joventut de Badalona ranks in the ACB of Spain, Nicolás Laprovittola. Even more recent was the achievement of Guaros de Lara (Venezuela), which not only was enough to get two titles from the LDA, but also went for more and finalized his first and only Intercontinental title against the quintet of Fraport Skyliners (Germany) with a score of 74-69 under the guidance of Argentine coach Néstor "Ché" García, according to the information provided by Noticias 24 and Marca.com.

Taking into account the aforementioned, the LDA was created precisely so that the best clubs in the various Latin American countries competed with each other and justify why they stayed with the scepter in their respective local tournaments.

A total of 16 teams participate in it and consists of three stages: the elimination round, semifinals and the Final Four with the participation of the four best clubs competing in a place chosen by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), according to the portal Millennium. However, what will be the expectations of the tournament for the future and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

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In the first instance, the creation of the Euroleague and the hegemony at the beginning of large European clubs such as Real Madrid, Baskonia (Spain), CSKA Moscow (Russia), Panathinaikos and Athens (Greece) among others, has led to the creation of the LDA as a tournament not of the level of the old content but with the purpose of generating some competitiveness and showing that there is quality material and good basketball in countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico among others and that recently the balance has been on the side Latin. Such is the case of Guaros de Lara (Venezuela) and Flamengo (Brazil).

"The League of the Americas is a great FIBA project and I believe that the future of basketball is in this type of event, while the basketball league is being played in each country, at the same time we can play a tournament among all the countries of America, that is going to cause it to be an extraordinary economic event for all countries, "said Luis Monrouzeau, manager of the Captains of Arecibo (Puerto Rico) to the El Economista web portal.

When referring to the fact of what are the advantages of the aforementioned event, there is the condition imposed by FIBA that each country participating in this competition starts its local tournament in September-October of each year, with the aim of each club arriving in the same physical conditions and rhythm of game to really see the parity, show, and quality of each team .

Likewise, the idea of this is to provide the opportunity for not only the clubs and their respective players to be fit, but also to contribute in the same way to their respective national teams, taking into account the new qualifying format for the China 2019 World Cup. and the following ones, according to the information of Mundo Deportivo.

On the other hand, one of the negative points is the consequent interruption of the local leagues of each country due to commitments of the clubs in the LDA or due to the issue of classification dates to the basketball world cup, as exactly happened this year. In addition, one of the agreements reached by FIBA together with the NBA organization is the non-convening of Latinos who play in the best basketball clubs in the world for their respective selections by season theme.

San Lorenzo proclaimed bi-champion of the LDA

With the locality in favor and with the antecedent of having faced it in the semifinals, the San Lorenzo team (Argentina) defeated in the final of the Liga de las Americas in its 2019 edition the team of Guaros de Lara (Venezuela) with final board of 64 by 61, with the main figure being Dar Tucker with 21 points, 4 triples and an equal number of rebounds. This was enough to win the MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the contest with 16.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists in general, as published by Sport Venezuela.

Those led by coach Fernando Duró, who were undefeated with a record of 7 wins without losses, enjoyed an advantage of 13 points 43-30 in the middle of the partial second, but in the end they could not maintain thanks mainly to the defensive adjustments of the southerners, provoking an offensive drought of Guaros, in addition to the involvement of the sixth man as it is the public that was present in the crash.

LatinAmerican Post | Rubén Sánchez

Translated from "Ina Liga de las Américas cada vez más atractiva ¡conózcala!"