The Puerto Rico national basketball team () represents Puerto Rico in men's international basketball competitions, it is governed by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation (), The team represents both FIBA and FIBA Americas. Since joining FIBA in 1957, the Puerto Rican national team has been mostly composed by Puerto Rican-born players and players of Puerto Rican descent born in the United States such as Raymond Gause, Rick Apodaca, Georgie Torres, Héctor Blondet, Renaldo Balkman, Ramón Clemente, Maurice Harkless, Tyler Davis and many others. History The Puerto Rican Basketball Federation joined FIBA in 1957. Puerto Rico has participated in nine Olympics and 12 World Championships, although they have never won a medal at either competition. Early years Puerto Rico's first appearance at a World Championship was in 1959 in Chile, where, led by Juan Vicéns, who averaged 22 points per game, the team finished 5th with a record of 3–6. In 1963, at Puerto Rico's second World Championship appearance which took place in Brazil, the team, led by Rafael Valle and Juan Vicéns, opened the tournament winning two straight games. Yet, after losing other six games back to back, ended its participation with a win over Italy, obtaining the 6th place. Coming back from its 13th place debut at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, in 1964 in Tokyo, the team was able to reach 4th place, in good part because of the contributions of point guard Juan Vicéns. This was, and still is as of 2016, the highest place it has ever reached since the team's birth at any Olympic Games. Three years later in Uruguay, at the 1967 World Championship, the team, led this time by Raymond Dalmau, was only able to finish 12th, ending the decade with a 9th place at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Before the 1970s, regardless of the non-remarkable performance at world international tournaments, Puerto Rico started to emerge as a power player at regional tournaments, medaling in all the competitions it participated (the Pan American Games, the CentroBasket tournament and the Central American and Caribbean Games). The medal count included two golds at the 1962 and the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, failing to medal only at the 1967 Pan American Games, where it finished 5th. 1970s The 1970s brought some memorable moments for the team, particularly a dramatic one-point loss to the United States at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where