Panama men's national basketball team
The Panama national basketball team represents Panama in men's international basketball competitions, The team represents both FIBA and FIBA Americas.
With four qualifications to the Basketball World Cup, one qualification to the Olympic Games, and one medal at the Pan American Games, Panama has traditionally been the dominant basketball power in Central America.
Tournament record
Olympic Games
- 1968: 12th
FIBA World Cup
- 1970: 9th
- 1982: 9th
- 1986: 19th
- 2006: 21st
Pan American Games
- 1951: 6th
- 1967:
- 1971: 6th
- 1979: 7th
- 1987: 6th
- 2007: 5th
FIBA AmeriCup
- 1984: 4th
- 1989: 11th
- 1992: 7th
- 1993: 8th
- 1999: 9th
- 2001: 6th
- 2005: 5th
- 2007: 9th
- 2009: 8th
- 2011: 8th
- 2015: 7th
- 2017: 12th
Central American championship
- 1995: 4th place
- 1999: 4th place
- 2001:
- 2004:
- 2006:
- 2008: 6th
- 2010:
- 2012: 4th
- 2014: 5th
Team
Current roster
At the 2016 Centrobasket:Former players
Head coach position
1968 Olympic Games: finished 12th among 16 teams
Davis Peralta, Norris Webb, Luis Sinclair, Pedro Rivas, Eliecer Ellis, Calixto Malcom, Nicolás Noé Alvarado, Ernesto Arturo Agard, Francisco Checa, Julio Osorio, Pércibal Eduardo Blades, Ramón Reyes
1970 World Championship: finished 9th among 13 teams
Davis Peralta, Luis Sinclair, Pedro Rivas, Ernesto Arturo Agard, Julio Osorio, Pércibal Eduardo Blades, Julio Andrade, Herbert Cousins, Ronald Walton, Cecilio Straker, Mario Peart, Hector Montalvo
1982 World Championship: finished 9th among 13 teams
Ernesto "Tito" Malcolm, Rolando Frazer, Mario Butler, Rodolfo Gill, Fernando Pinillo, Reggie Grenald, Braulio Rivas, Arturo Brown, Mario Galvez, Adolfo Medrick, Eddie Joe Chávez, Alfonso Smith
1986 World Championship: finished 19th among 24 teams
Ernesto "Tito" Malcolm, Mario Butler, Rolando Frazer, Reggie Grenald, Rodolfo Gill, Fernando Pinillo, Braulio Rivas, Adolfo Medrick, Cirilo Escalona, Mario Gálvez, Enrique Grenald, Daniel Macias
2006 World Championship: finished 21st among 24 teams
Ed Cota, Rubén Garcés, Jaime Lloreda, Ruben Douglas, Michael Hicks, Maximiliano "Max" Gómez, Eric Omar Cardenas, Kevin Daley, Antonio Enrique García, Jair Peralta, Jamaal Levy, Dionisio Gómez
At the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship:
Panama Pipeline
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, various Panama players played their college basketball in the United States at NAIA school Briar Cliff College as part of head coach Ray Nacke's "Panama Pipeline". Some of the members included national team members Rolando Frazier, Ernesto "Tito" Malcolm, Mario Butler, Eddie Warren, Reggie Grenald, and Mario Galvez. These players helped Briar Cliff to many NAIA Regional Championships, National Tournament appearances, and in 1981 the Chargers were ranked No. 1 in the nation in the NAIA's final regular season poll.The new millennium brought another set of very good players from Panama, coming out of the local Superior Basketball Circuit, the under 21 team, and local players playing in Division 1 Universities in the United States. Panama has gone to 4 preolympic tournaments, 5 pre-world championships, one world championship in 2006, and one youth basketball olympics since the year 2000. The local program is based in neighborhood leagues that collect talent and export it to the United States. This symbiotic philosophy produces back the talent for the National Team.
Usually underrated and underestimated, Panama Basketball always manages to qualify to big tournaments and give stunning surprises, such as beating the United States in the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007. Its long basketball tradition dating back to 1904, and its street basketball mentality of fighting hard to the end in basketball games, has made this Central American basketball program a "Classic" in the international scene.