Liga Nacional de Básquetbol

The Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (abbreviated LNB, and literally in English, "National Basketball League"), also commonly referred to as "La Liga de Básquet" ("The Basketball League"), is the top-tier level of the Argentine basketball league system. The league is under the auspices of the Basketball Clubs' Association (in Spanish: Asociación de Clubes de Básquetbol). The LNB's predecessor league is the now defunct Campeonato Argentino de Clubes, which was organized by the Argentine Basketball Confederation.

Liga Nacional de Básquetbol

Organising body	Asociación de Clubes de Básquetbol
Founded	1985; 40 years ago (1985) by León Najnudel
Country	Argentina
Number of teams	20
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	La Liga Argentina
International cup(s)	Champions League Americas
Current champions	Boca Juniors (5th title) (2024–25)
Most championships	Atenas (9 titles)
Most appearances	Leonardo Gutiérrez (1,106)[1]
All-time top scorer	Héctor Campana (17,359)[1][2]
President	Fabián Borro
TV partners	TyC Sports DirecTV
Website	laliganacional.com.ar

The league was created through the efforts of basketball coach León Najnudel, and sports journalist Osvaldo Orcasitas, in the 1980s, to make Argentine men's club basketball more competitive, through the merging of the many existing local leagues.^[3] It is designed like the NBA, with a regular season, all-star game, and playoffs. However, unlike the NBA, the LNB has a promotion and relegation system, with the La Liga Argentina (LLA), the league level that is immediately below the LNB.

A tribute to Najnudel's vision, is the string of successes of the senior men's Argentine national basketball team, culminating with the team's Summer Olympic Games gold medal won at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and the international careers of many players who started in the league.

History

Creation

Before the league was established, the regular tournament was Campeonato Argentino de Clubes where teams from all the provinces took part. The league had a regional format and playoffs.

For the 1984 edition there was 64 teams. The association decided to retire 10 teams, moving them to "Primera Nacional A".^[4] Of those teams, 4 were from city of Buenos Aires, and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santa Fe were represented by 2 teams each.

As a result, a number of 54 teams played the Argentino de clubes. At the end of the tournament, the six best placed team would promote to Primera A, and the rest of the clubs would be relegated to Primera B (second division).^[5]

First seasons

León Najnudel with the ball in the first LNB game ever: Argentino de Firmat v. San Lorenzo (in red uniform), 26 April 1985

The first edition of Liga Nacional was played within 1985, with 16 teams participating although Independiente de Tucumán abandoned the championship for economic reasons. The first game was played on April 26, 1985,^[6] when San Lorenzo de Almagro faced Argentino de Firmat at Estadio Obras Sanitarias.

Ferro Carril Oeste, the first champion of the LNB

Ferro Carril Oeste was the first LNB champion after defeating Atenas de Córdoba in 3 games. The next season (1986), Ferro Carril Oeste won its second consecutive title, beating Olimpo de Bahía Blanca in 5 games (3-1 on aggregate). The Verdolaga played its third consecutive final series in 1987, but was finally defeated by Atenas, that won the first of 9 titles, being the most winning LNB team to date.

In 1988 Atenas won a second championship beating River Plate and the next year Ferro won another title, being the only title won by León Najnudel as coach.

Competition format

Following a system similar to the European basketball leagues, the Liga Nacional features promotion and relegation. Contested by 20 teams, the top division is divided in two stages: the first one consists of a double round-robin competition, with standings decided by a points system. At the end of the season, teams placed 1st to 16th advance to the playoffs, while the last 2 teams play a series to avoid relegation.

The playoffs stage is divided in four parts, where winning teams qualify to the next stage while defeated teams retire from the tournament. The successive stages are quarter finals, semi-finals and the finals. Quarter and semi-finals are played in a 2-2-1 format (best-of-five) while finals are played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format, which rounds are best-of-seven series.

Current clubs (2024–25 season)

Club	City	Province	Seasons	Arena	Capacity	Est.
Argentino	Junín	Buenos Aires	17	El Fortín de las Morochas	1,465	1935
Atenas	Córdoba	Córdoba	1	Polideportivo Carlos Cerutti	3,500	1938
Boca Juniors	City of Buenos Aires		36	Luis Conde	2,000	1905
Ciclista Olímpico	La Banda	Santiago del Estero	20	Vicente Rosales	3,964	1921
Ferro Carril Oeste	City of Buenos Aires		30	Estadio Héctor Etchart	4,500	1904
Gimnasia y Esgrima	Comodoro Rivadavia	Chubut	36	Socios Fundadores	2,276	1919
Independiente	Oliva	Córdoba	3	El Gigante	1,800	1921
Instituto	Córdoba	Córdoba	12	Angel Sandrin	2,000	1918
Oberá Tenis Club	Oberá	Misiones	5	Estadio Dr. Luis Augusto Derna	2,000	1940
Obras Sanitarias	City of Buenos Aires		28	Estadio Obras	3,000	1917
Peñarol	Mar del Plata	Buenos Aires	38	Islas Malvinas	8,000	1922
Platense	Florida	Buenos Aires	6	Microestadio Vicente López[n 1]	800	1905
Quimsa	Santiago del Estero	Santiago del Estero	19	Estadio Ciudad	5,200	1989
Regatas	Corrientes	Corrientes	21	José Jorge Contte	4,000	1923
Riachuelo	La Rioja	La Rioja	4	Superdomo	13,000	1944
San Lorenzo	City of Buenos Aires		11	Polideportivo Roberto Pando	2,700	1908
San Martín	Corrientes	Corrientes	12	Estadio Raúl A. Ortiz	2,500	1932
La Unión	Formosa	Formosa	17	Cincuentenario	4,500	2004
Unión	Santa Fe	Santa Fe	7	Estadio Ángel Malvicino	5,000	1907
Zárate Basket	Zárate	Buenos Aires	2	D.A.M. Stadium	4,000	2017[7]

References

1. The team plays its home games at Obras Sanitarias stadium, with capacity for 3,000 spectators.

Champions

List of finals

Ed.	Season	Champion	Runner-up	Result	Winning Coach	Ref.
1	1985	Ferro Carril Oeste (1)	Atenas	2–1	Luis Martínez	[8]
2	1986	Ferro Carril Oeste (2)	Olimpo	3–1	Luis Martínez
3	1987	Atenas (1)	Ferro Carril Oeste	3–1	Walter Garrone
4	1988	Atenas (2)	River Plate	3–0	Walter Garrone
5	1989	Ferro Carril Oeste (3)	Atenas	3–2	León Najnudel
6	1990	Atenas (3)	Cañadense	3–0	Walter Garrone
7	1990–91	GEPU (1)	Estudiantes (BB)	4–2	Daniel Rodríguez
8	1991–92	Atenas (4)	GEPU	4–1	Rubén Magnano
9	1992–93	GEPU (2)	Atenas	4–2	Orlando Ferratto
10	1993–94	Peñarol (MDP) (1)	Independiente (GP)	4–1	Nestor García
11	1994–95	Independiente (GP) (1)	Olimpia (VT)	4–1	Mario Guzmán
12	1995–96	Olimpia (VT) (1)	Atenas	4–3	Horacio Seguí
13	1996–97	Boca Juniors (1)	Independiente (GP)	4–1	Julio Lamas
14	1997–98	Atenas (5)	Boca Juniors	4–0	Rubén Magnano
15	1998–99	Atenas (6)	Independiente (GP)	4–3	Rubén Magnano
16	1999–00	Estudiantes (O) (1)	Atenas	4–3	Sergio Hernández
17	2000–01	Estudiantes (O) (2)	Libertad	4–1	Sergio Hernández
18	2001–02	Atenas (7)	Estudiantes (O)	4–1	Horacio Seguí
19	2002–03	Atenas (8)	Boca Juniors	4–2	Oscar Sánchez
20	2003–04	Boca Juniors (2)	Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	4–2	Sergio Hernández
21	2004–05	Ben Hur (1)	Boca Juniors	4–1	Julio Lamas
22	2005–06	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CR) (1)	Libertad	4–2	Fernando Duró
23	2006–07	Boca Juniors (3)	Peñarol	4–2	Gabriel Piccato
24	2007–08	Libertad (1)	Quimsa	4–0	Julio Lamas
25	2008–09	Atenas (9)	Peñarol	4–2	Rubén Magnano
26	2009–10	Peñarol (MDP) (2)	Atenas	4–1	Sergio Hernández
27	2010–11	Peñarol (MDP) (3)	Atenas	4–1	Sergio Hernández
28	2011–12	Peñarol (MDP) (4)	Obras Sanitarias	4–2	Sergio Hernández
29	2012–13	Regatas (C)	Lanús	4–0	Nicolás Casalánguida
30	2013–14	Peñarol (MDP) (5)	Regatas	4–2	Fernando Rivero
31	2014–15	Quimsa (1)	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CR)	4–2	Silvio Santander
32	2015–16	San Lorenzo (1)	La Unión	4–0	Julio Lamas
33	2016–17	San Lorenzo (2)	Regatas	4–1	Julio Lamas
34	2017–18	San Lorenzo (3)	San Martín (C)	4–2	Gonzalo García
35	2018–19	San Lorenzo (4)	Instituto (C)	4–3	Gonzalo García
–	2019–20	(season cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic)
36	2020–21	San Lorenzo (5)	Quimsa	3–2	Silvio Santander
37	2021–22	Instituto (C) (1)	Quimsa	3–2	Lucas Victoriano
38	2022–23	Quimsa (2)	Boca Juniors	4–1	Leandro Ramella
39	2023–24	Boca Juniors (4)	Instituto (C)	4–2	Gonzalo Pérez
40	2024–25	Boca Juniors (5)	Instituto (C)	4–3		[9]

Source: LNB website.^[10]

Titles by club

Club	Titles	Years won
Atenas	9	1987, 1988, 1990, 1991–92, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2008–09
Peñarol	5	1993–94, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14
Boca Juniors		1996–97, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2023–24, 2024–25
San Lorenzo		2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21
Ferro Carril Oeste	3	1985, 1986, 1989
GEPU	2	1990–91, 1992–93
Estudiantes (O)		1999–00, 2000–01
Quimsa		2014–15, 2022-23
Independiente	1	1994–95
Olimpia		1995–96
Ben Hur		2004–05
Gimnasia y Esgrima (CR)		2005–06
Libertad		2007–08
Regatas Corrientes		2012–13
Instituto		2021–22

Awards

Main article: Liga Nacional de Básquet Awards

These are the yearly individual awards are given by the league as a recognition to the most valuable player (in both, regular season and finals) and the top scorer. Leonardo Gutiérrez was chosen finals MVP a record of 4 times, while Joe Bunn is the most times top scorer (5 seasons).

Statistical leaders

Main article: Liga Nacional de Básquet Statistical Leaders

Retired numbers

As of July 2025^[update], 18 players have their jerseys retired. Atenas was the team which started this practice (in 2002, with legendary Marcelo Milanesio's #9).^[11][12][13]

N°	Club	Player	Pos.	Tenure	No. ret. year	Ref.
4	Quilmes (MdP)	Eduardo Dominé	SG	1990, 1991–2001	2009	[13]
5	Atenas	Héctor Campana	SG	1987–88, 1991–92, 1996–2000, 2002–04	2005	[12][14]
5	Estudiantes (BB)[n 1]	Hernán Jasen	SF	1996–99, 2012–18	2018	[15]
7	Quilmes (MdP)	Esteban De la Fuente	SG	1991–93, 1995–97, 2004–05	2013	[13]
7	Atenas	Bruno Lábaque	PG	1994–2003, 2006–09, 2010–17	2017	[16]
7	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CR)	Pablo Moldú	SG	1994–2006	2019	[17][18]
7	Quimsa	Nicolás Aguirre	PG	2011–13, 2014–15	2019	[19]
8	Peñarol (MdP)	Tato Rodríguez	PG	1994–1998, 1999–2003, 2004–2011	2011	[20][21]
8	Quilmes (MdP)	Guillermo García Oyaga	PG	1970s–80s	2013	[13]
8	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CR)	Gabriel Cocha	SG	1991–92, 1994–98, 2003–07	2019	[17][18]
8	Quimsa	Fernando Small	PG	1998–2004, 2005–08	2019	[19][22]
9	Atenas	Marcelo Milanesio	PG	1982–2002	2002	[12]
10	Estudiantes (BB)[n 1]	Juan Espil	SG	1988–1992, 2010–12	2013	[23][24]
11	Atenas	Diego Osella	C	1988–1992, 1993–2001, 2003–2010	2011	[25][26][27]
11	Quimsa	Miguel Cortijo	PG	1998–2000	2011	[13][28]
13	Regatas Corrientes	Paolo Quinteros	SG	2011–22	SG	[29][30]
14	Estudiantes (BB)[n 1]	Alberto Cabrera[n 2]	PG	1961–84	2004	[31][32]
14	Quimsa	Gabriel Deck	SF	2010–16	2019	[19]

Notes

1. Number retired for both teams, as Bahía Basket was recognised as a continuity of Estudiantes in the LNB.
2. Although Cabrera did not play for Bahía Basket (he left basketball in 1984), the number 14 is also retired in the franchise.