Mexico City Capitanes
Mexican basketball team in the NBA G League.
Last updated
Tom Hagerty · CC BY 2.0
The Mexico City Capitanes are a professional basketball team based in Mexico City that plays in the NBA G League. They spent their first three seasons in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP) before moving to the G League, where they became the league’s first franchise located outside the United States and Canada. Their home games are held at Mexico City Arena.
Foundation
The team was founded before the 2017–18 season. A group of private investors led by Moisés Cosío launched the franchise, with Jordi Funtanet serving as director of marketing and communications. The Capitanes were the first LNBP team not tied to the Mexican government, relying entirely on private investment. The roster was built around national team players and experienced foreign talent.
The first seasons at the LNBP
In their first LNBP season, the Capitanes aimed for the playoffs and at least the semifinals. Head coach Ramón Díaz, a Spaniard who had been an assistant coach for the national team, led the squad. The team’s gymnasium was upgraded with new dressing rooms and a better playing surface.
After losing their first preseason game to an amateur team, they won their first official match 90–87 against the Aguacateros de Michoacán on October 13. The season went well: they won 21 of their first 30 games, and players Pedro Meza, Fernando Bénitez, and Emmanuel Ándujar, along with coach Díaz, were selected for the All Star game. The Capitanes reached the playoffs, beat Correbasket UAT 3–2 in the semifinals, and advanced to the championship round, but lost the title 4–1 to the Soles de Mexicali.
In their second season, the Capitanes posted a 27–13 record, the best in the LNBP. They swept the Abejas de León in the first round and avenged their previous finals loss by beating the Soles 4–2 in the semifinals. They returned to the championship round but lost 4–1 to the Soles de Mexicali. In their third and final LNBP season, they finished 25–11, good for second place, but the season was canceled due to COVID-19 before the playoffs.
NBA G League
In December 2019, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the Capitanes would join the NBA G League for at least five seasons starting in 2020–21, as a test for a potential future NBA team in Mexico.
A Private Venture to Revive a City's Basketball Passion
The Mexican capital had gone a full decade without a competitive basketball team, leaving a noticeable void in the local sports landscape. In an effort to reignite enthusiasm for the game, a group of investors under the leadership of Moisés Cosío stepped forward to create a new franchise ahead of the 2017–18 season. What made this venture particularly notable was its financial structure: the Capitanes became the first LNBP club funded entirely through private investment, with no economic ties to the Mexican government.
Marketing and communications director Jordi Funtanet acknowledged the challenges of the situation while framing it as a significant opportunity. The roster strategy blended players who could serve as a foundation for the national team with more seasoned international talent. The team called Mexico City Arena its home, and management also invested in upgrading the venue's facilities, including the dressing rooms and the playing surface itself.
Three Seasons of Near-Misses in the LNBP
The Capitanes' tenure in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional was defined by consistent competitiveness and heartbreaking championship defeats. In their debut season under Spanish head coach Ramón Díaz, the team posted a 21-5 record in their first 30 games, with Pedro Meza, Fernando Bénitez, and Emmanuel Ándujar all earning All-Star nods in early December. They advanced past Correbasket UAT 3-2 and then defeated Fuerza Regia de Monterrey 4-1 to reach the finals, only to fall to the Soles de Mexicali 4-1.
The following year, the Capitanes posted the league's best record at 27-13, swept Abejas de León in the first round, and avenged their semifinal loss by beating the Soles 4-2. Yet Monterrey returned the favor, winning the title 4-2. In their final LNBP campaign, a 25-11 record earned a second-place finish, but the run ended in the quarterfinals with a 4-1 loss to the Aguacateros de Michoacán.
A Historic Leap into the NBA G League
In December 2019, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the Capitanes would join the NBA G League for a minimum of five seasons beginning in 2020–21, making them the first franchise outside the United States and Canada to compete in the league's developmental circuit. The five-season commitment was designed to gauge the viability of a future Mexico-based NBA team. However, the COVID-19 pandemic upended those plans. The 2021 season was condensed into a single-site bubble in Orlando, Florida, and the Capitanes were not included.
The team instead entered the G League in 2021–22, with Nick Lagios named general manager on May 7, 2021. Because of ongoing travel restrictions, the Capitanes were limited to 12 games in the G League Showcase Cup, all played within the United States. They were temporarily based in Fort Worth, Texas, with temporary home venues scattered across Southaven, Mississippi; Edinburg, Texas; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Inaugural G League Season and the Road Back to Mexico
The Capitanes' first official G League game came on November 5, 2021, when they defeated the Memphis Hustle 95-90. During that shortened inaugural campaign, three roster players received NBA call-ups: Gary Clark to the New Orleans Pelicans, Alfonzo McKinnie to the Chicago Bulls, and Matt Mooney to the New York Knicks. The team finished with a 4-8 record and did not qualify for the Showcase Cup tournament. They also played exhibition matches against the G League Ignite, a developmental team focused on preparing younger prospects for NBA-level competition.
When the 2022–23 season arrived, the Capitanes finally returned to Mexican soil, opening their schedule with a 120-84 blowout of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at Arena Ciudad de México — a stark contrast to the previous year's entirely U.S.-based schedule and a symbolic homecoming for a franchise that had been building toward this moment since its founding.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Mexico City Capitanes (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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