Willie Melendez

Wilfredo (Willie) Melendez Velez (also known as "Wilito" Melendez) is a Puerto Rican former professional basketball player who played in the BSN league from 1974 to 1992. He is also a school teacher, having taught at his native Cayey's Benigno Fernandez Garcia Middle School during his heyday as a professional basketball player.

Melendez debuted as a professional basketball player with the Santos de San Juan, a defunct BSN franchise from San Juan. During his first season as a BSN player, he did not see much action, participating in only eight games and scoring fifteen points for an average of 1.9 points per game. The next three seasons, his numbers did not improve much; however, that changed when, during 1977, now as a player of the Brujos de Guayama in Guayama, he participated in 29 games, netting 295 points while shooting for 131 shots made out of 264 taken, averaging 10.2 points per game, with an average of slightly under 50% of his shots made. Brujos coaching entrusted him with the team's starting point guard position, and he averaged 19.4 points per game in 33 games during 1978 and 22.2 points per game in 1979 while making nearly 50% of his shots during the 63 games played by him with the Brujos in that era.

The average of 22.2 points a game during the 1979 season was the highest average Melendez would reach during his BSN career.

Melendez was traded north to the Criollos de Caguas before the 1980 season. He spent six seasons in Caguas, and the Criollos experienced their first winning season as a team with him as point guard, reaching the BSN's semi-finals in 1985. During his period as a member of the Criollos, Melendez increased his ability to assist other players in scoring, going from 65 assists in 1980, to 138 in 1981, and never achieving less than 129 assists from 1981 up until he was traded to the Polluelos de Aibonito. His scoring was also consistent, as he averaged 10.2 or more points a game with the Criollos from 1980 to 1985, his point average as a member of the Criollos topping at 15.4 during 1985.

A productive player as a member of the Criollos, Melendez was then traded to the Polluelos de Aibonito after the 1985 season. The Polluelos were building a team that could contend for titles during the late '80s, and they had Angel Santiago, Enrique Aponte and Rolando Frazer, to whom Melendez could feed the ball during plays.The Melendez-Frazer duo is one of the best remembered in Puerto Rican basketball history. (in Spanish). During his first season as a Polluelo, Melendez scored 14.0 points a game, fed for 6.9 assists (surpassing the 200 assists in one season for the first time in his career with 229, Melendez led the BSN league in assists that year) and grabbed 2.5 rebounds a game while shooting 57% from the field, 42% from the three point line and 77% from the free throws line, helping the Polluelos win their first, and, as of 2017, only league championship by beating the defending champions, Jose Ortiz, Bobby Rios and the Atleticos de San German in seven games during the BSN Finals.

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