J. J. Barea

José Juan Barea Mora (born June 26, 1984) is a Puerto Rican basketball coach and former professional player. He played college ball for the Northeastern Huskies, then signed with the Dallas Mavericks in 2006, becoming the seventh Puerto Rican to reach the NBA. Barea won an NBA championship with Dallas in 2011, later played three seasons for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and eventually returned to the Mavericks. His career also included stints in the NBA Development League and Puerto Rico’s Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN).

Barea represented Puerto Rico’s national team, earning gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. He started at point guard for the team that won gold at the 2011 Pan American Games and silver at the 2007 Pan American Games. In 2024 and 2025, he served as head coach of Mets de Guaynabo in the BSN.

Born in Mayagüez on Puerto Rico’s west coast, Barea grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. His father, Jaime, was an engineer; his mother, Marta (née Mora), was a retired professor and a volleyball and tennis coach. He spent seven years in Boy Scouts of America Troop 790 and graduated from Academia de la Inmaculada Concepción high school. In 2001, he began playing for Indios de Mayagüez in the BSN, then moved to Miami Christian School in Florida for his senior year (2001–02), averaging 20 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals while leading his team to a state title and a 38–2 record. He gained national attention at the City of Palms event in December 2001, leading his team in scoring and showing a reliable three-point shot. He enrolled at Northeastern University in April 2002, then returned to Puerto Rico for the 2002 BSN season with Indios de Mayagüez, averaging 2.8 points in 14 games.

In his freshman season (2002–03) at Northeastern, Barea earned third-team All-America East Conference (AEC) and AEC All-Rookie honors, leading the conference with 17 points per game, plus 3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.9 steals in 28 games. He became the first Husky freshman to record 400 points and 100 assists in a season. As a sophomore (2003–04), he made First Team All-AEC, finishing second in the conference in scoring (20.7 ppg) and assists (5.8 apg), and became the first Husky since Reggie Lewis (1986–87) to average at least 20 points per game. As a junior (2004–05), he ranked second in the AEC and eighth nationally in scoring (22.2 ppg), and led the conference while ranking fifth nationally in assists (7.3 apg). He earned First Team All-AEC again, tied the school single-game scoring record with 41 points against Stony Brook, and was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award. As a senior (2005–06), Barea was named Honorable Mention All-America by the Associated Press, CAA Player of the Year, First Team All-CAA, First Team NABC All-District One, and Mid-Major Player of the Year by CollegeInsider.com. He led Northeastern and finished third nationally in assists (8.4 apg), and finished 19th nationally in scoring (21.0 ppg). He was again a Bob Cousy Award finalist. He left as the school’s second all-time leading scorer (2,209 points, behind Reggie Lewis), second all-time in assists (721), and all-time leader in three-point field goals (255).

After college, Barea played in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in April 2006, averaging 14.0 points, 13.7 assists, and 5.7 rebounds over three games. He broke the tournament’s single-game and single-tournament assist records, dishing 18 assists in one game and totaling 41 assists. He received the inaugural Allen Iverson A.I. award as the tournament’s most important player.

He then joined Cangrejeros de Santurce for the 2006 BSN season, averaging 10.4 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.8 rebounds in nine games. Going undrafted in the 2006 NBA draft, he played for the Golden State Warriors in the Las Vegas Summer League (6.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2 steals in five games) and for the Dallas Mavericks in the Rocky Mountain Revue (12.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists in three games). On August 17, 2006, he signed a multi-year deal with the Mavericks. He made his NBA debut on November 4, 2006, scoring two points in two and a half minutes against the Houston Rockets. On January 17, 2007, he was assigned to the Fort Worth Flyers of the D-League, where he was named D-League Performer of the Week on January 29 after scoring over 40 points in two games and leading the Flyers to a 3–1 record. He was recalled by the Mavericks on February 1, 2007, after averaging 27.3 points in the D-League.