Dana Barros

Lore & Background

Barros was a four-year basketball starter at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, Massachusetts, where he tallied 1,821 points, including a record 57 points in a tournament game versus Needham. The 1985 Catholic Conference MVP and Boston Globe All Scholastic averaged over 30 points per game during his senior campaign in an era before the 3-point shot was implemented. He is now in the Xaverian Brothers High School "Hall of Fame". Barros played college basketball for Boston College. On February 25, 2017, Barros' number 3 was retired at Boston College. The 5 ft, 165 lb point guard, began his professional career in 1989 when he was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics with the 16th pick. Most of his time spent in Seattle was as a backup to point guard Gary Payton, who was considered to be a much more competent ball handler and defender, as Barros was deemed more usable at shooting guard. Prior to the 1993–94 season, the Sonics traded Barros to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Kendall Gill. Two days later, Charlotte traded Barros, Sidney Green, and their 1993 draft choice, Greg Graham, to the Philadelphia 76ers for Hersey Hawkins. In Philadelphia, Barros received much more playing time (31 minutes per game) with the Sixers, than when he was with the Western Conference SuperSonics (18 minutes per game). This allowed him to improve his scoring output the previous season with Seattle from 7.8 to 13.3 points per game. He was the last Sixer to wear #3 for the team, prior to the arrival of Allen Iverson. In Barros' second season with the Sixers (1994–95) he achieved career highs in minutes per game (40.5), field goal percentage (49.0%), three-point percentage (46.4%), scoring average (20.6 points per contest), rebounding (3.3 per game) and assists (7.5) while playing all 82 regular season games. Highlights included a 50-point, 8-rebound performance against the Houston Rockets in March 1995, and a 25-point, 10-rebound, 15-assist triple-double effort against the Orlando Magic a few weeks later. Barros was selected to play in the 1995 NBA All-Star Game and at season's end was voted the league's Most Improved Player. He also set an NBA record by making at least one three-pointer in 89 consecutive games from December 23, 1994, until January 10, 1996. This record was broken by Kyle Korver in December 2013.

Reader's Guide

After retiring from basketball, Barros opened the Dana Barros Sports Complex, a sports and social club in Mansfield, Massachusetts (now called M-Plex) 65000 sq ft Multi-Sport Indoor. However, the project proved more costly than Barros expected. He incurred massive debts which caused him to leave the project. In 2018, he opened a new Basketball Club and Sports Complex, in Stoughton, Massachusetts, which has done much better. The current Sports Complex and Basketball Club in Stoughton has five basketball courts and hosts AAU games, tournaments, and basketball camps. For two months in 2006, Barros worked as an assistant coach for the Northeastern University men's basketball team, a position from which he resigned in June 2006 to accept a role as the Director of Recreation for the city of Boston. Barros is now with the media relations department for the Celtics. Barros serves as a "basketball insider" for New England Sports Network (NESN) and offers analysis and insight on the NBA on the show NESN Daily.

Did You Know?

• Barros appeared on the album B-Ball's Best Kept Secret, featuring on a song called 'Check It' and also on 'Ya Don't Stop' with fellow NBA All-Star Cedric Ceballos and rappers Grand Puba, Sadat X, AG and Diamond D.
• He has two sons, Jordan and Jayson Barros, both of whom were student-athletes at Boston College (basketball and tennis, respectively).