Carl Herrera asked for help to retrieve its two rings of stolen samples

The first Venezuelan basketball player to play in the NBA, Carl Herrera, launched a campaign this Sunday to recover the two championship rings he won in 1994 and 1995 with the Houston Rockets and which were stolen.

“As many of you already know, the two NBA champion rings of 1994 and 1995 were stolen from me in Venezuela, in two separate unfortunate events that I never thought would happen,” Herrera, who has played, wrote on his account. as a striker. from Instagram.

The former player, who debuted in the US championship in 1991, said he never believed that the two rings could be stolen for the “respect and consideration” he has always had for Venezuela and for representing all citizens of his country every time he “entered”. on a field anywhere in the world ”.

“Now I would like, with great respect to all of you, to help me campaign to recover the rings. Let them carry this message to all the people they can and then reach out to those who may have some information that helps to find them, “said the first Venezuelan basketball player to play in the NBA, 53.

With the campaign he does not seek any kind of persecution of the people who have them, he said, but rather they understand that these objects are a precious part of Venezuela’s historical and sporting memory.

“Plus, they have sentimental value that you and I understand, so they have to be where they belong,” he added.

Herrera began his professional career in the basketball section of Real Madrid CF, where, after a good season in which the team won the Korac Cup, he packed his bags for Houston.

There, he shared a locker room with legend Hakeem Olajuwon, who baptized him as “Friend”.

After four seasons with the Rockets, “Amigo” Herrera signed for the San Antonio Spurs, a team to which he was linked until the 97/98 season. After a tour of several franchises, in 99/00 he went to play in his country.

He was also part of the best Venezuelan basketball team, the so-called “Heroes of Portland”, which won the silver medal at the 1992 FIBA ​​Americas Championship, in which only the American “Dream Team” deprived them of gold.

Thanks to that money, Vinotinto qualified for the first time in the Olympics, those of Barcelona 1992.

“Amigo” did not provide further information on the robberies, but in 2014 he was shot in the arm on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, in the middle of the Caribbean, during a robbery attempt.

The bullet lodged in his lung and, he later said, he can live with it inside his body thanks to the movement he made with his arm when he was hit.

Herrera’s request had the immediate support of several Venezuelan athletes such as the former NBA player Greivis Vasquez.