BUENOS AIRES (FIBA) - Long before there was Luis Scola, Manu Ginobili and other Argentina stars that once took the country to the number one spot in the FIBA World Rankings, there was a player named Oscar Furlong.
 
In 1950, the 1.88m Furlong played for the country at the first FIBA World Championship and led them to the gold medal.
 
Sixty years on, Furlong and his teammates have been honored with a permanent fixture in Buenos Aires.
 
A plaque with the names of all the players on that team was unveiled at Luna Park on Wednesday.
 
Furlong, the MVP and leading scorer of the event in 1950, is now 83.
 
He attended the ceremony.
 
"We are delighted with the number of people and media that were in attendance," said Furlong.
 
"We were pleasantly surprised.
 
"It was a huge event and we are obviously delighted by it."
 
Furlong was one of the game’s pioneers in Argentina.
 
He played for three years at Southern Methodist (1953-56) and upon his return home, Furlong introduced the jump shot in Argentina.
 
Earlier on, after representing Argentina at the 1948 Olympics in Helsinki, Furlong turned down the opportunity to play for both the Minneapolis Lakers and the Baltimore Bullets.
 
Instead, he spent his professional career in Argentina playing for Gimnasia y Esgrima de Villa del Parque.
 
Furlong and Ricardo Gonzalez, another member of the gold-medal winning Argentina team at the 1950 World Championship, have been enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame.
 
FIBA