With 15 teams that will have the obligation to have at least two foreign players, the main basket maker championship in the country will start. “It will be one of the best leagues in its 14 years,” said René Rosas, executive director of the competition.
By EL ÁGORA / Photo: CONCEPCIÓN DAILY ARCHIVE
With the match between Español de Osorno against Ancud, on Friday at 8:30 p.m., the National Basketball League will begin, the most important tournament of this sport in our country. In contact with the La Tribuna program, from Inicia Radio, René Rosas, executive director of the competition, shared his feelings regarding the new basket-making season:
“There is a lot of anxiety about the start of the league. Before, a Chile Cup was played between September and December, with total success. And now a league begins that will have the novelty of having two foreigners per team, mandatory, and an alternative third. In addition, two foreign players with permanent residence in Chile will be able to play, so it will be a tournament with that ingredient. It will be one of the best leagues in its 14 years.”
The champion of the last edition, the Universidad de Concepción, will not debut on the first date of the National Basketball League (LNB) because it will be representing the country in the Basketball Champions League Americas, where it will compete against Franca from Brazil and Obras from Argentina.
The National League will have 15 clubs distributed between Quilpué and Castro. Each weekend there will be two dates per club. There will be 28 games per team and a total of 147 games will be played in the regular phase, plus the playoffs where the top eight qualify. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be the best of five games, while the final will be the best of seven.
Regarding the televising of the matches, René Rosas commented: “For League 1 and League 2, especially for the final matches, we have a contract with the CDO channel, which broadcasts two matches per weekend, and we have an OTT (free transmission service) to transmit all the games, because in each gym where the league is played we have a robotic camera installed that transmits. The statistics come out to the second, information that is delivered to the technical bodies at the end of the times and the match. It has worked very well, we have around 3,000 subscribers. We have structured the 2023 calendar for the entire regular season”.
Asked about the distance we have with Argentina, a benchmark for basketball in the region, Rosas said that “at the national team level they have taken advantage of us years ago. Chile has more than 15 players playing abroad. At the league level we are trying to match it, they are very powerful teams with budgets similar to football. We are working on it, there are many foreigners who come and go from leagues in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. This year we have a greater number of Argentine players”.
Finally, and as a curious fact, René Rosas, who was previously ANFP competitions manager, shared an anecdote from the times when he was in charge of scheduling professional soccer matches: “Once a manager called me because he wanted to play on Saturday and not on Sunday, a game that was scheduled more than three months ago, in November and December. Later we learned that the granddaughter of the president of that team had her first communion. The date of the match has not been changed.
Find out about the schedule and more details of the National Basketball League at Inbchile.com
