Teófilo Cruz

Did You Know?

• Cruz was selected with the 55th overall pick of the 1965 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
• After his death, the sports complex in San Juan was named after him in his honor.

Club career

Teófilo Cruz spent a quarter-century in Puerto Rico's top basketball league, the BSN. He earned league MVP honors four times and set a record with five Defensive Player of the Year awards. Cruz played for Santurce, Canóvanas, Guaynabo, Río Piedras, and Mayagüez. He led the league in scoring twice and became the first BSN player to surpass 9,000 career points. His final totals were 9,535 points (16.3 per game), 4,672 rebounds (8.0 per game), and 605 assists across 25 seasons.

National team career

Cruz was the starting center of the senior Puerto Rican national basketball team, at the times when Puerto Rico and Brazil were the two dominant teams in the FIBA Americas region, excluding the United States. Cruz was the first men's basketball player to compete at five different Summer Olympics. That feat was matched twenty years later by Brazilian player Oscar Schmidt, at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and later by Australian player Andrew Gaze, at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and by Spanish player Juan Carlos Navarro at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Cruz also played at the 1974 FIBA World Championship, in Puerto Rico, and at numerous Pan American Games and CentroBasket tournaments.

Awards and accomplishments

Cruz was a 2-time Puerto Rican BSN League scoring champion: (1960, 1962). He was a 2-time Puerto Rican BSN League champion: (1962, 1968). He earned 4 Puerto Rican BSN League MVP awards: (1962, 1967, 1970, 1971). He earned 6 Puerto Rican BSN League Defensive Player of the Year honors: (1964, 1966, 1969–1972). Cruz played at 5 Summer Olympic Games: Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968, Munich 1972, and Montreal 1976. Cruz was named one FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. His number 13 jersey was retired by Cangrejeros de Santurce. He received the Olympic Order. On March 1, 2007, Cruz was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame. Along with Bill Russell and Nikos Galis, he was one of the first sixteen players to be inducted into the international Hall of Fame, as he was a part of the first induction class in history.