The Guaros de Lara is a

Venezuelan Venezuelans (Spanish language, Spanish: ''venezolanos'') are the Citizenship, citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connect ...

professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club, that is based in

Barquisimeto Barquisimeto (; ) is a city in Venezuela. Barquisimeto is located in the Central-Western Region, Venezuela. It is the capital of the state of Lara (state), Lara and head of Iribarren Municipality. It is an important urban, industrial, commercial a ...

Lara Lara may refer to: People * Lara (name), can be a given name or a surname in several languages * Lara (mythology), a naiad nymph, daughter of the river Almo in Ovid's ''Fasti'' Places *Lara (state), a state in Venezuela * Electoral district ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. Guaros de Lara BBC has existed as a club in various different forms since 1983. It has existed in its current form since 2003. The club competes in the Venezuelan LPB. The club has won two Venezuelan LPB national domestic titles. On the international stage, the club also has one continental

FIBA South American League The Liga Sudamericana de Baloncesto (LSB), or FIBA Liga Sudamericana de Baloncesto ( Portuguese: ''Liga Sul-Americana de Basquete'', English: ''South American Basketball League''), also commonly known as FIBA South American League, is the secon ...

title, and three intercontinental titles, consisting of two

FIBA Americas League The FIBA Americas League ( Portuguese: ''FIBA Liga das Américas'', Spanish: ''FIBA Liga de las Américas''), officially abbreviated as the LDA, was the premier intercontinental basketball club competition played annually by clubs of the entire ...

titles and one

FIBA Intercontinental Cup The FIBA Intercontinental Cup, previously known to as the FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs and the FIBA Club World Cup, is an annual international men's basketball competition organised by FIBA, the sport's global governing body. The competit ...

title.

History

In 1982, Flavio Fridegotto decided to sell his ownership in the Colosos de Carabobo basketball team, which led the club move from

Carabobo Carabobo State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is and ...

, to the city of

Acarigua Acarigua (), founded as San Miguel de Acarigua in 1620, is a city in northwestern Venezuela, in the northern part of the state of Portuguesa (state), Portuguesa and its former capital. It encompasses the Páez municipality. It is a major commerc ...

. In Acarigua, the club began to compete under the name of Bravos de Portuguesa, in 1983. In 1993, the club moved to

, and changed its name to Malteros de Lara. In 1995, the club changed its name to Bravos de Lara. The club again relocated, as it moved to the city of

Guanare Guanare () is the capital of Portuguesa State, Venezuela. It is where la Virgen de Coromoto is said to have appeared to a Coromoto Indian. Guanare was founded on 3 November 1591 by João Fernandes de Leão Pacheco (1543–1593), a Portuguese ...

. After moving to Guanare, the club re-named itself to Bravos de Portuguesa once again, in 1998. Former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

player Carl Herrera played with the team in 1999. In 2003, Carlos García Ibáñez bought the Bravos de Portuguesa club, and he subsequently moved it back to the city of Barquisimeto. After the club returned to Barquisimeto, it was re-named to Guaros de Lara. In 2016, the Guaros de Lara won the 2016 FIBA Americas League championship, and was crowned as the champion of all of

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, for the first time. Following their FIBA Americas League championship, Guaros also won the

2016 FIBA Intercontinental Cup The 2016 FIBA Intercontinental Cup was the 26th edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. The game was contested by the 2016 FIBA Americas League champions (the top-tier level of Latin America champions), Guaros de Lara, and the 2015–16 FIBA E ...

, and thus they were crowned world basketball club champions, after beating the

Skyliners Frankfurt The Skyliners Frankfurt, formerly known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their home arena is Ballsporthalle. The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga since 19 ...

in the final. In 2017, the Guaros successfully defended their Americas intercontinental title, by defeating Weber Bahía Blanca, by a score of 88–65, in the final of the years' Americas League. Later, they also won their first Venezuelan League national domestic title, by defeating

Marinos de Anzoátegui Marinos B.B.C., also referred to as Marinos de Oriente, is a professional basketball club based in the city of Maturín, located in the Venezuelan Monagas State. The team currently plays in Venezuela's Liga Profesional de Baloncesto. Marinos BBC wo ...

, 4–2, in the Venezuelan League's finals. Afterwards, they won the

2017 FIBA South American League Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number) * One of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017, 2117 Science * Chlorine, a halogen in the periodic table * 17 Thetis, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American maga ...

championship, which was the club's first

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n continental championship; after defeating

Estudiantes Concordia Club Estudiantes Concordia is an Argentine sports club located in the city of Concordia, Entre Ríos. The club is mostly known for its basketball team, which plays at Liga Nacional de Básquet, the top division of Argentine basketball league syste ...

, 3–1, in the league's finals.

Arena

The Guaros de Lara play their home games at the 10,000-capacity Domo Bolivariano in

, numerous times in front of thousands of spectators.

Honours

Domestic

* Venezuelan League :Champions (2):

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, 2018 :Runners-up (5): 2005, 2006, 2015, 2019, 2022

South America

:Champions (1):

Latin America

:Champions (2):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

:Runners-up (1):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Worldwide

:Champions (1):

:Runners-up (1):

Current roster

Depth chart

Source:

Notable players

* Luis Bethelmy * Néstor Colmenares * Gregory Echenique * Windi Graterol * Heissler Guillént * Miguel Marriaga * José Gregorio Vargas *

Gregory Vargas Gregory Maxdier Vargas Díaz (born 18 February 1986) is a Venezuelan professional basketball player who last played for Hapoel Haifa of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He was the Israeli Basketball Premier League Defensive Player of the ...

* David Cubillán * David Cooke * Zach Graham *

Lazar Hayward Lazar Miller Hayward (born November 26, 1986) is an American former professional basketball player. He was a college standout for the Marquette Golden Eagles. High school career Hayward went to Buffalo Traditional High School where he was an o ...

* Damion James *

Davon Jefferson Davon Jefferson (born November 3, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the Atléticos de San Germán of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN). He attended and played college basketball at the University of Southern California. ...

* Mario Little *

Nate Robinson Nathaniel Cornelius Robinson (born May 31, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Seattle, Robinson played college basketball for the University of Washington in Seattle and was the 21st pick in the 2005 NBA draft. ...

* Robert Upshaw * Damien Wilkins *

Branko Cvetković Branko Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Бранко Цветковић, born 5 March 1984) is a retired Serbian professional basketball player. He also represented the Serbian national team internationally. He is 2.00 m (6 ft 6 ¾ in) tall and p ...

Head coaches

* Che García * Iván Déniz *

Fernando Duró Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, and former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia (like the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka). It is e ...

References

External links

Guaros de Lara Official website

Latin-Basket.com Team Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guaros de Lara Basketball teams in Venezuela