José Rafael Ortiz, nicknamed 'Piculín', former Puerto Rican basketball player, has passed away at the age of 62, after a long illness, three years after being diagnosed for colorectal cancer. Ortiz played in the NBA, in Europe, including being one of the few players to play for both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, while representing Puerto Rico in four Olympic Games, from Seoul 1988 to Athens 2004.
Ortiz, who played college basketball in Oregon, became the first Puerto Rican to be drafted in the NBA, in the 1987 draft, as the no. 15 overall. He played two seasons for Utah Jazz before being waived by the team, and briefly played for Real Madrid before joining FC Barcelona the following season (1990/91), where he played two seasons, winning the Spanish King's Cup and finishing second place in the FIBA European Champions Cup (the current Euroleague).
He played for other clubs in Andorra, Spain, Greece, and Venezuea, before returning to Puerto Rico, at his longest serving club, the Cangrejeros de Santurce, before retiring at the Capitanes de Arecibo in 2006, ending a 26-years career that earned him several records in Puerto Rican basketball and an induction in the FIBA Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
His nickname, Piculín, is a reference to the character of The Wizard of Oz, and was also known as The Concorde in reference to the plane.
