Sport Basketball No. of teams 10 Continent FIBA Americas | Founded 1974 Country Venezuela | |
Most recent
champion(s) Cocodrilos de Caracas
(6th title) | ||
The Liga Profesional de Baloncesto (LPB) is the Venezuelan first division national professional basketball league. The league is considered one of the best in South-America. Marinos de Anzoátegui (11 titles) and Cocodrilos de Caracas (6 titles) are the current elite teams in the league – each season since 2008 one of the two teams won the championship.
Contents
History
The league was founded in 1974 as Liga Especial de Baloncesto, as it started with four teams in the competition. Each team was allowed to have two foreign players. In 1992 the league expanded to 8 teams and was renamed "LPB".
Format and rules
The competition consists of 10 teams divided in two conferences (West and East) who play each other twice at home and twice away in the regular season, for a total of 36 games. After that, the top four teams of each conference advance to the Playoffs. Every round (1st round, conference finals and league finals) are played in a best-of-seven format.
The regular season starts in February of each year and ends in May. Also, like the NBA, a All-Star Game is held at the middle of the season.
The rule that only two foreign players can play per team still stands.