On billboards, he's hawking Finlandia malt beverages. On television, he's enthusing about sandwiches made from Holsum bread. Newspapers run his photo almost daily lately, including a full-page shot of an up-and-under reverse layup on the back page of a San Juan tabloid last week.

And every time Carlos Arroyo ventures out in public in his homeland, crowds of raucous fans shout his name, snap photos and ask for autographs.

In Utah, the Jazz's buried-on-the-bench third-string point guard is virtually anonymous out of uniform. But here in his hometown, like virtually everywhere on this basketball-mad island of 3 million people, Arroyo's fame rivals anything his former teammates John Stockton and Karl Malone encounter on the mainland.

"Yeah, but John and Karl are known all over the world," Arroyo says. "This is my home."

It's a home that has sent only six players to the NBA, none with much success so far. It's a home that, virtually alone among Caribbean locales, prefers basketball above soccer, baseball or any other sport. And because of that history, it is a home that has tracked the point guard's college and professional progress in the United States in remarkable detail -- "even when I'm not playing," Arroyo says with a laugh.

"He is an icon here," says Leo Arill, a San Juan journalist and acquaintance of Arroyo's.

"Just the fact that he is there, in the NBA, makes him popular. People are proud when a Puerto Rican is part of sports on the [U.S.] mainland, and he was one of the most popular players already. Everywhere now, it's 'Carlos, Carlos, Carlos.' "