Julio Toro
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Julio Toro (born 1952) is a Puerto Rican basketball coach, and arguably one of the most successful head coaches in Puerto Rican professional basketball history.
Toro, who is also a lawyer, is an aficionado of philosophy, and is known to answer media questions in ethereal, non-specific ways. Some refer to Toro, humorously, as "the philosopher of basketball".
Toro coached the Guaynabo Mets to the BSN championship in 1980 and 1982. He also coached that team to the league's finals in 1981 and 1983. In 1989, after stints with other teams such as the Bayamón Cowboys, Toro again coached the Mets to a championship, beating the Ponce Lions in seven games. The Mets reached the finals again in 1990, that time losing to the Lions. During his tenures as coach of the Mets, he had players such as Mario Morales, Federico Lopez, Francisco Leon and Georgie Torres.
During the early 1990s, Toro was signed by Carabobo of the Venezuelan professional basketball league. After coaching Carabobo to various titles, he became the coach of Venezuela's National Team. Back in Puerto Rico to coach the Santurce Crabbers, he led the then expansion team to four league titles in a row, from 1998 to 2001, with players such as Carlos Arroyo and Jose Ortiz under his direction. In 2003, he won another BSN title with the Crabbers.
Toro was named head coach of the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team in 1999, and remained at that position until 2006. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, he made history by becoming the first non-Soviet coach to defeat the United States during Olympic competition, and the first coach to defeat an American team composed of NBA players at an Olympics match. The outcome of that game, 92-73, was historical as well, as it is the most lopsided loss handed to the US in the history of International Basketball as of 2007 (collegiate or professional).
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