Mavs guard J.J. Barea had a chat with Time’s Stephanie Apstein, in which he talked about the state of Puerto Rican basketball, his experience coming to America, and giving back to the community.
Moving from the town of Mayaguez, a city of 89,000 people, to Miami in high school in 2001 created quite the culture shock. Apstein reports that 98 percent of Barea’s home town is of Puerto Rican descent, so moving to such a culturally diverse area for the first time at age 17 or 18 was a totally new experience for the young Barea.