J. J. Barea

José Juan Barea Mora (born June 26, 1984) is a Puerto Rican former professional basketball player and current head coach for the Mets de Guaynabo of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN).

Barea was born in the municipality of Mayagüez in the west coast of Puerto Rico in 1984 to parents Marta (née Mora).

With a rapper father and a mother who was a retired professor as well as volleyball and tennis coach, he grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of Mayagüez.

Barea was a member of Boy Scouts of America Troop 790 for seven years.

He graduated from Academia de la Inmaculada Concepción high school.

In 2001, Barea started playing basketball for Indios de Mayagüez of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN).

Later that year, he moved to Florida to attend high school at Miami Christian School in Miami, Florida.

As a senior in 2001–02, he averaged 20 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals in helping his team to the state title and a 38–2 record.

He made a name for himself nationally at the City of Palms event in December 2001 where he was the team's leading scorer and showcased an accurate shot from three-point range.

In April 2002, he enrolled at Northeastern University.

After attending Northeastern University, Barea returned to Puerto Rico to rejoin Indios de Mayagüez for the 2002 BSN season; there, he averaged 2.8 points in 14 games.

As a freshman playing for the Northeastern Huskies in 2002–03, Barea earned third-team All-America East Conference (AEC) and AEC All-Rookie team honors, after averaging a conference-leading 17 points to go along with 3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.9 steals in 28 contests.

He became the first freshman in Husky basketball history to record 400 points and 100 assists in a season and accrued a team-high 25 games of scoring in double-figures.

As a sophomore in 2003–04, Barea earned First Team All-America East honors after finishing second in that conference for both scoring (20.7 ppg) and assists (5.8 apg) and becoming the first Husky since Reggie Lewis in 1986–87 to average at least 20 points per game.

As a junior in 2004–05, Barea ranked second in the America East and eighth in the country in scoring (22.2 ppg); he also led the conference and was fifth in the nation in assists (7.3 apg).

He later earned first-team All-AEC honors for the second consecutive year.

Further, he placed third in assists (218), fourth in three-pointers (68), and sixth in points (665) on Northeastern's single-season charts, and tied the school record with a career-high 41 points against the Stony Brook Seawolves.

He was also named a finalist for the illustrious Bob Cousy Award.

As a senior in 2005–06, Barea was named Honorable Mention All-America by The Associated Press, the Player of the Year in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), first-team All-CAA, first-team NABC All-District One, and Mid-Major Player of the Year by CollegeInsider.com.

He played college basketball for Northeastern University before joining the Mavericks in 2006 and becoming only the seventh Puerto Rican to play in the NBA.

Barea was a member of the Puerto Rican national team that won the gold medal in the 2006 and 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games.

In April 2006, Barea had a productive performance at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in Virginia, finishing with averages of 14.0 points, 13.7 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game in three contests.

Barea broke the single-game and single-tournament assist records, as he dished out 18 assists for Beach Barton Ford in a 118–100 victory over Norfolk Sports Club, giving him 41 assists in three games.

For his efforts, Barea received the tournament's first Allen Iverson A.I. award, given to the player deemed most important to his team.

After the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, Barea returned to Puerto Rico to join Cangrejeros de Santurce for the 2006 BSN season, where he averaged 10.4 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.8 rebounds over 9 games.

After going undrafted in the 2006 NBA draft, Barea joined the Golden State Warriors for the 2006 Las Vegas Summer League where in five games, he averaged 6.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 2 steals in 21.4 minutes per contest.

He then joined the Dallas Mavericks for the Rocky Mountain Revue where in three games, he averaged 12.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists in 25.0 minutes per game.

On August 17, 2006, Barea signed a multi-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

On November 4, 2006, he made his regular season debut for the franchise, recording two points in two and a half minutes of action during a 76–107 loss to the Houston Rockets.

On January 17, 2007, Barea was assigned to the Fort Worth Flyers of the NBA Development League.

On January 29, he was named the D-League Performer of the Week after he topped 40 points in two different games while leading the Flyers to a 3–1 record.

On February 1, 2007, he was recalled by the Mavericks after he averaged 27.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 7.8 assists, and 1.3 steals in eight D-League games.

On April 13, 2007, Barea recorded a season-high 16 points in an 89–104 loss to the Utah Jazz.

Four days later, he started his first career game for the Mavericks in which he contributed 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists during an 82–111 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

He went on to win an NBA championship with the Mavericks in 2011 before signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he played for the next three seasons.

He has also played in the NBA Development League and the Baloncesto Superior Nacional.

He was the starting point guard for Puerto Rico when they won the gold medal in the 2011 Pan American Games and the silver medal in the 2007 Pan American Games.

He led Northeastern and finished third in the nation in assists (8.4 apg), and he finished 19th in the nation in scoring (21.0 ppg).

Barea was yet again named a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award.

Barea finished his collegiate career as the school's second all-time leading scorer, with 2,209 points behind Reggie Lewis, and he left Northeastern as its second all-time leader in assists, with 721, and its leader in three-point field goals made (255).