FC Barcelona (1997–2007) 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.
Memphis Grizzlies (2007–2008) 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.
Return to FC Barcelona (2008–2018) , getting past
Joventut's Pau Ribas, after a screen performed by
Daniel Santiago (2009). (2017). 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 March 2019, Navarro's number 11 jersey was
retired by the club. ==National team career==