Juan Carlos Navarro Feijoo, commonly known as either Juan Carlos Navarro or J. C. Navarro (born June 13, 1980), is a Spanish former professional basketball player and current basketball executive. He currently a club ambassador and player mentor of the Spanish EuroLeague club FC Barcelona Bàsquet. During his playing career, at a height of 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall, he played at the shooting guard position. During his playing days, Navarro was nicknamed "La Bomba" (English: "The Bomb"), which is also the Spanish name for his signature basketball move, the tear drop, which was the shot Navarro was a specialist in and became well-known for.
Navarro is widely regarded as one of the best European basketball players of all time. Navarro was the Eurobasket News All-Europe Player of the Year in 2009, 2010, and 2011. He was also named Mr. Europa in 2010. On March 14, 2014, Navarro was inducted into the Euroleague's Hall of Fame, after he was named a EuroLeague Legend. In 2018, he was named to the 101 Greats of European Basketball selection. Along with the Greek player Vassilis Spanoulis, Navarro was one of just two players, that were still active players at the time, that were specially selected for the honor. All of the other players that were chosen for the honor, had already retired from actively playing.
During his pro club career, Navarro was a two-time EuroLeague champion, in 2003 and 2010. He was also named the EuroLeague MVP in 2009, the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2010, and he was also selected as a member of the EuroLeague 2000–2010 All-Decade Team and the EuroLeague 2010–2020 All-Decade Team. As the captain of the senior national team of Spain, Navarro notably won, among other medals, a FIBA World Cup gold medal in 2006, two FIBA Summer Olympics silver medals in 2008 and 2012, as well as two FIBA EuroBasket gold medals in 2009 and 2011. He also earned two All-EuroBasket Team selections (2005, 2011), and was the competition's MVP in 2011.
Juan Carlos Navarro Feijoo was born in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. Navarro began playing youth system club basketball, with a local club in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, called Club Bàsquet Santfeliuenc, at the age of 8. At the age of 12, he moved to the youth clubs of FC Barcelona.
Navarro started playing with the senior men's club of FC Barcelona at the age of 17, making his Spanish ACB League debut on November 23, 1997. That year he was selected to attend the Nike Hoop Summit, but he opted stayed in Europe, and play for the Barcelona pro team. Due to his club obligations, he was also not on the Spanish junior national team that won the Albert Schweitzer Tournament, in Mannheim, in 1998.
With the acquisitions of Dejan Bodiroga and Gregor Fučka in 2003, FC Barcelona won all the competitions they played in that year. It was the first time the club won the EuroLeague championship. By winning the Spanish ACB League, the Spanish King's Cup, and the 2002–03 EuroLeague all in the same year, Barcelona won the coveted Triple Crown championship that year.
With Barcelona, Navarro played on Liga ACB (Spanish League) championship teams eight times: 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014; the Spanish King's Cup winners seven times: 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2018; the Spanish Supercup winners five times: 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2015; the FIBA Korać Cup champions once: 1999; and the EuroLeague champions twice: 2003 and 2010. Navarro helped Barcelona reach the EuroLeague Final Four seven times: 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014. Navarro was selected to the All-EuroLeague Team seven times: 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In 2006, Juan Carlos Navarro earned the regular season Most Valuable Player award of the Spanish Liga ACB. He was named the Spanish Liga ACB Finals Most Valuable Player in 2009 and 2011. He was named the EuroLeague MVP in 2009, and the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2010
As a member of FC Barcelona, Navarro played with players like Sasha Đjorđjević, Artūras Karnišovas, Rony Seikaly, Pau Gasol, and Šarūnas Jasikevičius, which helped make him a better player, and he became one of the most promising young European players, early on in his career with Barcelona. Several NBA mock drafts started to set him as a projected NBA draft pick.
In the 2001–02 season, Navarro was plagued by injuries, which dropped his NBA draft stock. Eventually, the Washington Wizards drafted Navarro in the second round (with the 40th pick overall) of the 2002 NBA draft. Navarro subsequently declined the Wizards contract offer, as he preferred to stay with Barcelona.
On August 3, 2007, the Washington Wizards traded Navarro's draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for a future first-round draft pick. Navarro would later be reunited with his former Barcelona and Spain national teammate Pau Gasol on the Grizzlies. After securing his €10 million contract buyout with Barcelona, Navarro signed a one-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA, and he played with them during the 2007–08 season.
In his rookie NBA season, Navarro was one of the Grizzlies' team leaders in three-point shooting (.361). He was also named to the 2007–08 NBA All-Rookie Second Team after averaging 10.9 points per game. On June 18, 2008, he decided to leave the NBA and return to Spain. He signed a four-year deal worth €12 million net income (with an optional fifth year that would bring the total contract to €15 million net income) with Barcelona, his former team. A qualifying contract offer, that had been previously tendered to Navarro by the Memphis Grizzlies, was eventually rescinded by the team on September 10, 2009. That allowed the Grizzlies the cap space to then sign Allen Iverson.
Navarro's final NBA game was played on April 16, 2008, in a 111–120 loss to the Denver Nuggets where he recorded 16 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
After spending the 2007–08 season in the NBA, with the Memphis Grizzlies, Navarro returned to FC Barcelona in the summer of 2008, on a 4-year €12 million net income contract. The contract included a €10 million buyout amount. The contract also included an optional fifth year, which brought the total contract to €15 million net income. In 2012, Barcelona picked up the fifth optional year of his contract (€3 million net income), and extended him for another two additional years, at a salary of €2.6 million per season after that, bringing the total to €8.2 million net income over three years.
Over the 2014–15 season, Navarro experienced several injury problems with his right leg. In late December 2014, it was announced that he would miss up to six weeks of action, due to a torn muscle in his right thigh. On June 29, 2015, it was announced by Barcelona that Navarro would miss three months of game action, due to plantar fasciitis on his right foot. Those injuries negatively impacted his performances over the season, in which he had averages of 10.5 points and 3.1 assists per game, on 37% shooting from the field overall, in 17 EuroLeague 2014–15 season games.
On August 17, 2018, Navarro retired from competing in active sports competition, and he joined the FC Barcelona club's head office structure. That fulfilled what had been previously established in the 10-year contract that he signed with the club in September 2017 - that he would join the club's front office, after he retired from playing basketball with the team.
At the time of his retirement from playing professional basketball, Navarro was the EuroLeague's all-time career leader in total Performance Index Rating (PIR) (that record was eventually broken by Vassilis Spanoulis), and also the league's career leader in total points scored (4,152 points) in the modern EuroLeague Basketball era of the competition, since the year 2000 (that record was also eventually broken by Spanoulis). Navarro also retired as the all-time career leader in total points scored (4,321 points), in the entire history of the EuroLeague (since 1958), including when the competition was run by FIBA Europe, as he also scored 169 total points in the FIBA EuroLeague 1999–00 season. In March 2019, Navarro's number 11 jersey was retired by the club.