Mantarrayas de La Paz

Lore & Background

The Mantarrayas de La Paz were announced on 11 September 2018 by Baja California Sur governor Carlos Mendoza Davis during the re-inauguration of Arena La Paz. The team name and logo were revealed in January 2019, and Argentine coach Juan José Pidal was named the first head coach. They selected Mexico national team player Irwin Ávalos with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. The team played its first official game on 28 March 2019, losing 90–86 to the Pioneros de Los Mochis, but achieved its first victory the following night, winning 98–92. The Mantarrayas finished the regular season in fifth place with an 18–16 record, and three players—Ávalos, Antonio Peña, and Tyrone White—were named All-Stars. In the playoffs, they d

Reader's Guide

The Mantarrayas de La Paz represent a notable chapter in the revival of professional basketball in Baja California Sur. Their debut season in 2019 saw them reach the CIBACOPA finals, an impressive feat for an expansion team. The team's formation was part of a broader sports development in the region, with three professional teams starting in 2019. The Mantarrayas' success in their first year, including a playoff run that ended in a finals appearance, highlighted the potential of the franchise. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the 2020 season, and the team subsequently chose not to participate in the 2022 and 2023 seasons due to health concerns. Their legacy includes the connection to the earlier Lobos Marinos de La Paz, which had represented the city in the original CIBACOPA in the 1980s and 1990s and again from 2001 until folding due to financial difficulties. The Mantarrayas' brief but impactful run demonstrated the enduring interest in basketball in La Paz.

Did You Know?

• The Mantarrayas were one of three professional sports teams in Baja California Sur to start playing in 2019, along with La Paz F.C. and Delfines de La Paz.
• They selected Mexico national team player Irwin Ávalos with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft.
• In the 2019 finals, the Mantarrayas lost game 6 by a score of 99–59, in which Rayos de Hermosillo player Jeremy Hollowell recorded 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
• The team opted out of both the 2022 and 2023 seasons due to the continued risk of COVID-19.

From Sea Lions to Manta Rays: The Road to Revival

La Paz, Baja California Sur, had known professional basketball before the Mantarrayas. The Lobos Marinos represented the city in the original CIBACOPA league through the 1980s and 90s, and when the circuit was resurrected in 2001, they joined as one of eight founding franchises. Financial trouble, however, forced the Lobos to fold after only a few seasons, leaving the city without a pro basketball team for nearly two decades. A small spark of interest returned in March 2017, when reigning CIBACOPA champions Náuticos de Mazatlán stopped in La Paz for an exhibition game on their Champion's Tour. The matchup was held at the Manuel Gómez Jiménez court—the former home of the Lobos—and the visitors won 93–56 over a local squad. The true turning point arrived on 11 September 2018, when Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis used the re-inauguration of the Arena La Paz to announce that CIBACOPA basketball would return to the city. By January 2019, a press conference unveiled the Mantarrayas name and logo, Argentine coach Juan José Pidal was named the team's first head coach, and the franchise selected Mexico national team player Irwin Ávalos with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft.

A Debut Season That Almost Was

The Mantarrayas' first official game came on 28 March 2019, a home opener against the Pioneros de Los Mochis that ended in a 90–86 loss. The following night, however, the team delivered its first-ever victory, edging the Pioneros 98–92 to even the series. Over the course of the regular season, the Mantarrayas compiled an 18–16 record to finish fifth, and three players—Irwin Ávalos, Antonio Peña, and Tyrone White—earned All-Star recognition. The playoff run was the season's highlight. The Mantarrayas dispatched the Caballeros de Culiacán four games to one in the opening round, then survived a grueling seven-game semifinal against the Halcones de Ciudad Obregón, sealing the series with a 105–92 win in game 7 powered by Kyle Lamonte's 26-point performance. In the finals, they faced the Rayos de Hermosillo and their leader Jeremy Hollowell. Lamonte nearly posted a triple-double in game 5—34 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists in a 78–76 win—to push La Paz ahead 3–2. But Hollowell answered with a 22-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist masterclass in a 99–59 game 6 rout, and the Rayos closed out the series 90–77 in game 7, leaving the Mantarrayas as league runners-up in their inaugural year.

Pandemic and Prolonged Absence

The Mantarrayas' second season arrived under new leadership, with Uruguayan coach Federico Camiña taking the helm ahead of the 2020 campaign. The team opened that year on 12 March with an 88–82 defeat to the Tijuana Zonkeys, but the season was short-lived. After playing only a handful of games, the CIBACOPA schedule was halted due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across Mexico, cutting the campaign short and leaving the Mantarrayas without a completed season for the first time. The disruption proved longer than anyone anticipated. In 2022, the franchise announced it would not field a team, citing the continued risk posed by the pandemic as the reason for its absence from the league. The following year, the Mantarrayas opted out of the 2023 season as well, extending their competitive hiatus. Across their brief competitive history, the team thus played only two partial seasons—2019 and 2020—before stepping away from professional basketball entirely, a stark contrast to the ambitious launch that had greeted them in the spring of 2019.

A New Era for Baja California Sur Sports

The Mantarrayas did not arrive in a vacuum. In 2019, they became one of three new professional sports franchises to launch in Baja California Sur in the same year. Alongside them, La Paz F.C. entered the Liga Premier de México in soccer, and the Delfines de La Paz joined the Liga Norte de México, creating a rare wave of professional athletics in a state that had long lacked sustained top-level competition. The Mantarrayas, playing their home games at the Arena La Paz, filled a specific void left by the Lobos Marinos, whose financial collapse in the early 2000s had ended the city's previous era of CIBACOPA basketball. The 2017 exhibition game at the old Manuel Gómez Jiménez court had demonstrated that local audiences still craved competitive basketball, and the governor's 2018 announcement at the arena's re-inauguration signaled a deliberate political and community investment in reviving that tradition. For a brief window, La Paz once again had a professional basketball identity—the Manta Rays—tied to its coastal character and its place in the Pacific Circuit.