Baloncesto Profesional Colombiano (in English, Professional Colombian Basketball), now referred to mostly as Copa Invitacional FCB (or, FCB Invitational Cup, is the premier professional basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 championship in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. The championship was established in 1992 and is organized by the Federación Colombiana de Baloncesto (in English, Colombian Basketball Federation).
Initially the first national amateur championship was called Copa Sprite

Sprite (soft drink)

Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...

, sponsored by the eponymous soda trademark. This led the participating clubs to the creation of the División Mayor del Baloncesto Colombiano.
This way the first championship was performed, with the called Copa Sprite

Sprite (soft drink)

Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...

 Profesional, in this version participated the following teams: Bogotá-Doria Promasa, Valle-Sensus 2, Antioquia-Sprite, Santander-Terpel, Barranquilla-Junior y Caldas-Ron Viejo de Caldas.

League format

The championship consists of three rounds:

• Round Robin: The teams play 24 games each. The four top teams in the end reach the play offs.
• The play offs: The first seed plays against the fourth, and the second seed against the third. The two teams which win their legs will play the finals. The best of seven games wins the leg.
• The Finals: The two teams will play a best of seven games series.

Current clubs

2010 Season Teams
Team	City	Arena	Capacity
Arrieros	Medellín Medellín Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...	Iván de Bedout	6.000
Búcaros	Bucaramanga Bucaramanga Bucaramanga is a Colombian city, and capital city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth largest city economy and sixth largest population in Colombia, with 1,212,656 people in its metropolitan area...	Vicente Díaz Romero	5.000
Cangrejeros	Cartagena	Bernardo Caraballo	4.500
Cúcuta-Norte	Cúcuta Cúcuta Cúcuta is a Colombian city, capital of Norte de Santander, in the northeast of the country. Due to its proximity to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, Cúcuta is an important commercial center. The city has the constitutional category of Special District. It is located at the most active...	Toto Hernández	5.000
Valle-Fastbreak	Cali Santiago de Cali Santiago de Cali , simply referred to as Cali, is a city in western Colombia and the capital of the Valle del Cauca Department. With a population of 2.5 million, Cali is the third largest city in the country. It has one of the fastest growing economies and infrastructure in the country because...	Evangelista Mora	3.340
Patriotas	Tunja Tunja Tunja is a city and municipality located in the central part of Colombia, in the region of "Alto Chicomocha". As of the 2005 Census it had 152,419 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Department of Boyacá and part of the subregion of the Central Boyacá Province. It is approximately 145 km...	Municipal de Tunja	2.500
Piratas	Bogotá Bogotá Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...	El Salitre	7.000

Amateur era (1988 to 1991)

Year	Champion	Tournament
1988	Cali Sport - JGB	I Copa Sprite
1989	Caldas Ron Viejo de Caldas	II Copa Sprite
1990	Antioquia - Sprite	III Copa Sprite
1991	Valle - Sensus	IV Copa Sprite

Profesional era (1992 - present)

Year	Champion	Tournament
1992	Valle - Sensus	Copa Sprite Profesional
1993	Paisas - Pilsen	I Copa Costeñita
1994	Leopardos	II Copa Costeñita
1995	Caimanes de Barranquilla	III Copa Costeñita
1996	Paisas - Pilsen	IV Copa Costeñita
1997	Caimanes de Barranquilla	V Copa Costeñita
1998	Caimanes de Barranquilla	VI Copa Costeñita
1999	Piratas de Bogotá	VII Copa Costeñita
2000	Sabios de Caldas	VIII Copa Costeñita
2001	Paisas - Pilsen	Copa Invitacional FCB-SALUDCOP-IDRD
2002	cancelled
2003	Piratas de Bogotá	Copa Invitacional FCB-SALUDCOP-IDRD
2004	Piratas de Bogotá	Copa Invitacional FCB-SALUDCOP-IDRD
2005	cancelled
2006	Búcaros de Santander	Copa Invitacional FCB-SALUDCOP-IDRD
2007	Búcaros de Santander	Copa Invitacional FCB-SALUDCOP-IDRD
2008	Cúcuta-Norte	Copa Invitacional FCB-IDRD
2009	Cúcuta-Norte	Copa Invitacional FCB
2010	Arrieros de Antioquia	Copa Invitacional FCB

Further reading

• Sitio web oficial de la Federación Colombiana de Baloncesto
• Enlace en Latinbasket
• Palmarés del campeonato en Latinbasket
• Historia Piratas de Bogotá
• Copa Invitacional de Baloncesto en Señal Colombia