JJ Barea, former Mavericks star, announces his retirement from professional basketball

The end has officially come for JJ Barea, the basketball player who made history with the Dallas Mavericks.

The member of the 2011 NBA champion team said in an interview with El Nuevo Día, a media outlet from his native Puerto Rico, on Tuesday night that he is retiring from professional basketball.

Barea, who turned 38 last month, last played in the NBA during the 2019-20 season, a year after suffering a ruptured right Achilles tendon.

After playing in 29 games, as well as appearing in a playoff game against the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA bubble, he re-signed with the Mavericks to play another year, but was fired nine days later.

Since then he has played in professional teams in Spain and Puerto Rico.

Although he wasn’t a Mavericks player last season, Barea was still on the team.

He served as the unofficial assistant coach for the Mavericks’ 2021 summer league team, becoming one of the last members of the Dallas champions roster to return to the organization in some capacity.

After going undrafted in 2006, Barea impressed the Mavericks enough as a member of the Golden State Warriors summer league team for Dallas to sign him.

He would spend the next five years of his career with the Mavericks, culminating as a key player on the 2011 championship team.

After leaving in free agency and spending the next three seasons in Minnesota, Barea returned to the Mavericks in 2014 and spent the final six seasons of his NBA career in Dallas.

Barea appeared in 831 regular season games (107 starts) during these 14 NBA seasons.

He averaged 8.9 points, 3.9 assists, and 2.1 rebounds per game.