Cuba has a long-standing tradition in basketball, much longer than the other countries in the Caribbean region. The Cuba national basketball team finished third at the ‘72 Summer Olympic Games and as fourth at the ‘74 FIBA World Cup. No other Caribbean national basketball team has ever succeeded at winning a medal at a global event as Cuba has.
Cuba NBA Players:
Andrés Guibert
Guibert was born on October 28, 1968, in Havana. He stands at 6 ft. 10 in. and played as a power forward and a center. During the 1993 Centrobasket tournament, he defected to the United States.
During his tenure in the NBA (1993-1995) he played for the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 1995, he was picked up by the Toronto Raptors, but he didn’t get to play for them as his contract was waived before the start of the regular season.
His next stop was Europe. He played for some clubs in the national leagues of Greece and Italy.
Lazaro Borrell
Borrell was born in Cuba on Sept 20, 1972. He is 6 ft. 8 in. tall and played as forward. Before NBA, he played in the Cuban basketball league for Lobos De Villa Clara.
He went into NBA undrafted and played only one season (1999-2000) for the Seattle Supersonics. In the next season, he signed a one year contract with the La Crosse Bobcats that were competing in the CBA league. After that ended, he moved to South America where he played for various clubs in Argentina.
As of now, there are no blue chip NBA prospects coming out of Italy, but it remains to be seen if Cuba can produce future NBA talent from its basketball pipeline.
