Rubén Rodríguez (born August 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, he played 23 seasons in the

Baloncesto Superior Nacional The Baloncesto Superior Nacional, abbreviated as BSN, is the first-tier-level professional men's basketball league in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1929 and is organized by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation. The Baloncesto Superior Nac ...

(BSN) tournament. Many people consider either him to be, along with José Ortíz,

Raymond Dalmau Raymond Dalmau Pérez (born October 27, 1948) is a retired Puerto Rican professional basketball player and coach. Dalmau played in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN), the top tier basketball league in the country, for 20 seasons with the Pir ...

Juan Vicens ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

, Rafael Valle,

Georgie Torres Georgie Torres Dougherty (born October 15, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player. He is a well known former BSN basketball player. Torres broke the record for the most points scored in a career at that league, with over 15,80 ...

Mario Morales Mario Morales Micheo (born November 13, 1957) is a former Puerto Rican basketball player. He is known as a.k.a. "Quijote" Morales for his ability to conquer both scoring and team championships in Puerto Rico's BSN league. He is the father of ...

, the greatest or one of the greatest basketball players in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

's national tournament's history. He was one of only five players (Morales, Dalmau, Georgie Torres and Mario Butler being the other four) to reach 10,000 or more points during his BSN career, and for a long time, was the second best scorer ever behind Dalmau. Rodríguez spent his whole career with the '' Vaqueros de Bayamon'' of Bayamón. With the Vaqueros, he won 8 national championships, in 1969, five in a row from 1971 to 1975, one in 1981 and one in 1988, the year that the team inaugurated his actual venue, that carries his name, the Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum. He also garnered the MVP award in 1979, and, once the three-point shot was established for the first time in the Puerto Rican tournament during the 1980 season, he started making shots from behind the three-point line too. Rodríguez was a member of the

Puerto Rican national basketball team The Puerto Rico national basketball team ( es, Selección de Baloncesto de Puerto Rico) represents Puerto Rico in men's international basketball competitions, it is governed by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation ( es, link=no, Federación de ...

, playing in many international tournaments such as the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

and

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is hel ...

. Rodríguez for Team Puerto Rico played against Michael Jordan for Team USA, at the coliseum named after Rodríguez, in 1983. He retired from basketball in 1991. He tried several times to coach a basketball team in the Puerto Rico League, BSN, but without success. His most recent attempt was with the Bayamón team in 2002. He started the season 0-5 and was eventually fired. He is now a basketball analyst for several radio shows in Puerto Rico.

References

External links

Gallery of Pictures of Puerto Rican players
at enciclopediapr.org
Statistics
in BSN {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Ruben 1953 births Living people Baloncesto Superior Nacional players Basketball players at the 1971 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1975 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 1979 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 1983 Pan American Games Basketball players from New York City BSN coaches LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Puerto Rico Puerto Rican men's basketball players 1974 FIBA World Championship players 1978 FIBA World Championship players Puerto Rico men's national basketball team players Pan American Games silver medalists for Puerto Rico Pan American Games medalists in basketball Centers (basketball) Power forwards (basketball) Medalists at the 1971 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1975 Pan American Games Vaqueros de Bayamón basketball players