101 Greats of European Basketball

The Dominican
shooter
At the end of a recent Spanish League
regular season, some breaking news
emerged: Alberto Corbacho of Blusens
Monbus had established a new record
with an average of 3.21 three-pointers
made per game. Corbacho put an end
to the reign of Chicho Sibilio and his record from 1986-
87 of 3.14 threes per contest – a record that lasted 26
years. I am sure that some of the younger fans are
wondering who Chicho Sibilio is.
This is the story of a great player who arrived from a
small country in the Caribbean that did not have a powerful
national team but featured some interesting players
and a great star: Cándido Antonio Sibilio Hughes,
who was born on October 3, 1958 in San Cristobal,
Dominican Republic, and is simply known as “Chicho”
by the basketball world.
In a great story about him in “Informe Robinson”,
a show on Spanish TV hosted by Mike Robinson, the
player himself said that the great Serbian coach Ranko
Zeravica “fell in love” with him in the mid-1970s. I talked
to Zeravica and he told me an interesting story about
Chicho:
“Through several sources, we got word that in the
Dominican Republic there was a very interesting player.
A shooting guard with NBA potential, whose name
I don’t remember now. So, with Eduardo Portela, then
with FC Barcelona, we set up a tour of the Dominican
national team with the idea of watching that other player
and signing him if he convinced us. It so happened
that I saw a slim small forward who had the touch of
the very best shooters. I told Portela right away that
I wanted this forward and that we had to sign him no
matter what. That’s how we signed Chicho Sibilio at 17
years old.”
That was the start of a brilliant career that ended
in 1993, after 13 years in Barcelona and four more in
Taugres Baskonia of Vitoria. Sibilio played 348 Spanish
League games in which he averaged 28 minutes, 17.3
points on 42% three-point shooting, 58% accuracy on
two-pointers and 79% on free throws. But behind the
numbers we find a versatile player whose 2.00-meter
height allowed him to play every position except point
guard and center. “He was a smart player and he learned
fast, he was willing to work,” explained Zeravica. “However,
his main weapon was always his shooting. Too
bad that triples arrived only in 1984. He spent almost
half of his career without three-pointers.”.
With the arrival of Sibilio, Barcelona formed a lethal
duo of forwards completed by legend Juan Antonio
“Epi” San Epifanio. With a great floor general in Nacho
Solozabal, Barcelona had the core of a great team for
many years. With that team, Sibilio won five Spanish
Leagues (1981, 1983, 1987, 1988 and 1989), eight
Spanish King’s Cups (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982,
1983, 1987 and 1988), two Saporta Cups (1985, 1986),
one Korac Cup (1987) and one Intercontinental Cup
(1985). In 1992, Sibilio scored his 650th triple and on
April 4, 1993, he became the first Spanish League player
with 6,000 career points.
No EuroLeague crown
Realizing the rough diamond that it held in its
hands, FC Barcelona managed to get a quick nation-
101 greats of european basketball
Chicho Sibilio
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