El Calor de Cancun

Cancún had gone without top-flight basketball for eight years when, on 29 February 2024, El Calor de Cancún took the floor as an expansion side in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional. The city's previous team, Pioneros de Quintana Roo, had collapsed in 2016 after more than 900 million pesos went missing from the state budget and its assets were sold off. El Calor was built the opposite way: private money, led by Carlos Bremer and the Value Group, rather than a state subsidy. Roberto Alvarado, the club's president, presented the project alongside Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa.

The team plays at the Polifórum Benito Juárez, refitted with more than 60 million pesos of state investment and holding around 5,800 for basketball. The name El Calor — the heat — was picked for the local climate and for the crowd; the red-and-yellow home kit was designed with the local climate in mind.

Fernando Duró, the Argentine coach who had built his reputation across South American leagues and national teams, took charge for that first season, and the club made the playoffs in its debut year. There they ran into Fuerza Regia de Monterrey and lost the series. El Calor de Cancún has not won a title since it does not have one to defend yet.

Quintana Roo has no other team in the league, so there is no derby to speak of. The rivalry that has taken its place is with Halcones Rojos Veracruz.