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A whole life with Barça

After 15 years at FC Barcelona, Juan Carlos Navarro has decided to make his dream come true and play in the NBA. La ‘Bomba' reached an agreement with the Memphis Grizzlies for this season, where he will be teaming up with an old friend, Pau Gasol.

Navarro started out in the Barça youth teams and made his first team debut aged 17 years, and went on to become a regular member of the team. He won everything going in a Barça shirt, including the club’s only Euroleague title in 2003.

After learning to play the game at his hometown club of CB Santfeliuenc, he signed as a youngster for FC Barcelona. He climbed through the ranks and made his ACB debut aged just 17 years on November 23, 1997 when the side was still being coached by Joan Montes. The opposition that day was Covirán Granada and Navarro scored ten points in the same number of minutes.

That first season he shared his time between the first team and Barça B. It was in the 1999/00 season, now under Aíto García Reneses that he became a regular in the first team, and despite his youth, it was clear that he had a very bright future indeed. Even when a new coach stepped in, Svetislav Pesic, he continued to lead the team and made his presence felt even more strongly. 2002/03 was the season his career really took off, when FC Barcelona won the ACB League and also the Euroleague at the Palau Sant Jordi.

In 2003/04 he continued to improve, winning the league yet again, and getting an average of 30 minutes a game. The following season was less successful for the team, winning just the ACB Super Cup and the Catalan league, but Navvarro still failed to disappoint.

His last season at Barça saw Ivanovic at the helm, and he was named in the ACB League’s All Star five, and also topped the scoring in the regular season, with 17.3 points a game. He was the first Spanish player to take the accolade since 1973, and he also topped the scoring for three pointers. Following his triumphant swansong, Navarro decided it was time to move on to the biggest basketball league in the world, and thus move on to the next stage of his brilliant career.

Juan Carlos Navarro has set all kinds of records in his ten years in the Barça first team. He has made the third highest number of ACB appearances for Barça, 365, only beaten by Epi (421) and Andrés Jiménez (376). Navarro has made more assists, 805, than any other Barça player in the ACB, and is the second highest ACB point scorer with 4,604. His highest score was on October 3, 2005, when he bagged 36 points against Pamesa.