Nickname Azulgrana Arena Capacity 2,000 League Liga Nacional de Básquet Head coach Julio Lamas Championships 1 | Conference Sur President Matías Lammens Location Buenos Aires, Argentina Date founded 1 April 1908 | |
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Leagues LNB
FIBA Americas League Arena Polideportivo Roberto Pando | ||
San Lorenzo de Almagro is the men's professional club basketball section of the San Lorenzo de Almagro multi sports club, that is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The team plays in the Liga Nacional de Básquet (LNB), which is the first tier level division of the Argentine basketball league system. The team is currently coached by Julio Lamas. San Lorenzo plays its home games at the Polideportivo Roberto Pando, which is located in Boedo, Buenos Aires.
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Beginning and golden years
San Lorenzo affiliated to the Argentine Association in 1930, and won a large amount of championships from the 1930s to the 1970s, being nicknamed The Cathedral of Basketball. 1942 was the year when San Lorenzo achieved its first titles, winning the Torneo Apertura and the Oficial championship, organised by the Buenos Aires Basketball Association. One year later, the team won another Apertura title, and they then won the 1946, 1949, and 1950 Apertura official titles. The club's most notable players of that era were Alfredo Belli, Salvador Capece, and Alberto Trama. Other notable members of the team were Armando Bo and Francisco Sommariva.
In 1951, San Lorenzo played against the The Harlem Globetrotters, at the Estadio Luna Park, in Buenos Aires. That same year, the team won the Apertura championship (and repeated again in 1952), and the Oficial in 1954. Two years later, the team won another Oficial title, remaining unbeaten, and its first Torneo Metropolitano title. In 1957, San Lorenzo made its first international tour of Brazil, where the squad won 8 of 12 games played. Players on the tour were: Ricardo Lanzillotta (team captain), Herberto Fagnani, Edgar Parizzia, Oscar Zagatti, Carlos Vasino, Vicente Lazzara, Erio Cassetai, and Carlos Marranzino, with Francisco del Río being the head coach of the team.
San Lorenzo won its first national title in 1958, the Campeonato Argentino. That allowed the team to play its first official tournament outside of Argentina, as the club competed in the South American top-tier level South American Club Championship, where San Lorenzo finished second, behind Defensor Sporting. At the Argentine national domestic level, San Lorenzo won the 1958 Apertura title, and finished third in the Buenos Aires championship (although the squad would later go on to win the 1959 and 1960 titles). In 1966, San Lorenzo won the Apertura title finishing unbeaten, and both the Metropolitano and Buenos Aires championships, in 1968.
The 1970s began with the 1970 Metropolitano championship, and the club then winning two titles else in 1971. That same year, San Lorenzo toured in Europe, marking the first time that an Argentine team played there. The club's layers were Oscar Visciglia, Gustavo Aguirre, Carlos Perroni, Carlos Garro, Dante Massolini, Norberto Pacheco, Carlos Perales, Abel Rojas, Néstor Delgui, and Emilio Dumani, with Edgard Parizzia acting as the team's head coach. San Lorenzo defeated the Yugoslavian national league champion, OKK Beograd, and six rivals from Italy, also playing the Spain national team. During that tour, the team was nicknamed, La Catedral (The Cathedral), after a speech from team player Emilio Dumani, saying: "This is a team that always fights, and never turns off... like the lights of a Cathedral".
Despite those successful years, the 1973 Buenos Aires championship would be the last official title of San Lorenzo until the 2010s.
Liga Nacional and decline
On April 26, 1985, San Lorenzo played the opening game of the recently created Liga Nacional de Básquet (LNB), facing Argentino de Firmat at the Obras Sanitarias venue. Nevertheless, the team was relegated that same year.
The basketball section of the club was inactive between 1986 and 1993, returning only at youth levels. In 1996, San Lorenzo's senior squad returned to first division tournaments of the city of Buenos Aires. Since then, the club won the Under-22 championship (2004), and Copa De Oyarbide (2012).
Return to glory
In 2014, San Lorenzo debuted in the Torneo Nacional de Ascenso (TNA), the second tier level division of professional basketball in Argentina. In 2015, San Lorenzo acquired a vacant place in the Argentine top-tier level Liga Nacional de Básquet (LNB), because of a merger with the club 9 de Julio de Río Tercero. 30 years after its debut in the LNB, San Lorenzo returned to the top division on September 22, 2015, and beat Quimsa, by a score of 79-64.
San Lorenzo won its first LNB title in 2016, after beating La Unión, with a 4-0 series sweep in the league's finals. San Lorenzo player, Walter Herrmann, was chosen as MVP of the finals.