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How JJ Barea’s foray into coaching began spontaneously in Puerto Rico, led him to Nuggets

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How JJ Barea’s foray into coaching began spontaneously in Puerto Rico, led him to Nuggets


JJ Barea literally got chosen out of the crowd to coach his hometown team.

He was spending the summer of 2017 in Mayagüez, where he grew up on the west coast of Puerto Rico. “I always go to those games just for fun,” he said, “just because I played in that league before the NBA.” He had outgrown Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) long ago — this was after his 11th NBA season — but the island’s pro league was still sacred to him.

The Indios de Mayagüez were floundering. They had just fired their coach. As Barea took in one of their games, they hadn’t named a replacement yet. The Mavericks guard was automatically the biggest celebrity in attendance, as nobody else from Mayagüez has ever played in the NBA.

Around that time, he was already thinking about the future — about coaching someday, after his playing career. But he was not expecting an impromptu job offer.

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“The owner comes up to me like, ‘Hey, do you want to coach?’” Barea remembers.

After the surprise wore off, he answered with a question. “Man, I would love to, but I don’t know if I can.”

Barea called Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and general manager Donnie Nelson to ask if the NBA or the team had any rules against him coaching in a separate league during the offseason. Mayagüez just needed someone to get the team through the end of the schedule. “They called me back, said, ‘You’re good to go,’” Barea recalls. “So I did it.”

It’s fitting in hindsight that Barea’s first foray into coaching was in Puerto Rico, the island he loves as much as basketball. Eight years later, he’s on the front row of the Nuggets’ bench as a new assistant coach on David Adelman’s inaugural staff. His tactical role is offense-oriented, but his presence has just as much to do with his effervescent personality, as far as Adelman is concerned — “his attitude, his energy, who he is as a person, the way he can talk to the players.”

To hear Denver’s Bruce Brown describe the 5-foot-10 ex-point guard: “That’s my little Puerto Rican right there.”

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Puerto Rican identity has been the through-line of Barea’s basketball life. After college at Northeastern, he played with BSN’s Cangrejeros de Santurce before signing with Dallas as an undrafted free agent and working his way up through the D-League. In 2011, he scored 17 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals and became the second Boricua to win an NBA championship, and the first since Butch Lee in 1980.

When Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, he galvanized the Dallas community to fundraise for recovery and used Cuban’s private plane to deliver supplies back home. When he finally got too gray to stick around on an NBA roster, he moved back home for one last ride as a player with Santurce, just for the fun of it.

That’s the spirit with which he has always steered his decisions. His mom coached tennis and volleyball in Mayagüez, so he grew up playing those sports in addition to basketball and baseball. Despite emerging as one of the best tennis players in Puerto Rico for his age group — “for some reason, I’m good at every single sport” — he quit at 14 years old. He was too social for it. He preferred being a captain.

“I liked team sports better,” he said. “They’re more fun. I like everything about a team. The hangout. The traveling. Competing and winning together and losing together. Going in my parents’ car, driving around Puerto Rico to play basketball or volleyball. Flying from Puerto Rico to the United States with your whole team. For me, it was the best times.”

Minnesota Timberwolves’ J.J. Barea, right, drives around Utah Jazz’s Jamaal Tinsley, left, in the second quarter during a game on Friday, April 12, 2013, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

He probably wouldn’t have this job without that perspective. After winning the title in Dallas, Barea went on to play three years for the Minnesota Timberwolves. For a time, he lived in the same building as one of their assistant coaches: Adelman, who was working in player development under his father, Rick, and trying to work his way up.

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Even though one was a player and one was a coach, they were only two years apart in age. Barea and David often found themselves meeting for a beer after games, rehashing the night, then talking about the league, or maybe baseball. “It was always about sports,” Barea said. Their careers went their separate ways eventually, but they kept in touch sporadically.

“He was really good just talking with players, having that relationship with me,” Barea said. “He’s no bull-(crap). He’ll tell you how it is. He’ll tell you straight up to your face. And his dad is similar. I was always a fan of his dad, the way they did things. … I was like, these are two good people to know and learn from more about the NBA.”

Adelman hired him this summer while in pursuit of ex-players whose voices could resonate with the locker room. Barea had spent the last couple of years coaching the Mets de Guaynabo, another BSN team. He quickly started building relationships with Nuggets players on the golf course, where “he’s really (freaking) good,” Brown said. “We played in San Diego (during training camp). We had rental clubs, and he was hitting darts.”

As for basketball, Adelman is the architect of Denver’s offense and has been throughout Nikola Jokic’s prime, but Barea can add specific insight from his experience alongside another Hall of Fame big.

“I’m really about finding stuff that actually could make us even a little bit better,” he said. “If it’s about just a little bit of spacing, how we did the spacing when I played with Dirk, when we gave the ball to Dirk at the free throw line, how we did the spacing when he got it in a post-up. Any little thing that will help (Jokic) and help us be a little bit better, I’m up for it. … He’s so smart. He will tell you — he won’t keep it to himself — what he’s comfortable with.”

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“We’ve been watching Dirk tape for a decade,” Adelman added, “trying to find new ways to get Nikola the ball in space. Ran a version of something (the Mavericks) used to run the other night involving a tight catch at the nail. … It’s always nice to have somebody you can ask, ‘What does it feel like? I like this set from 12 years ago. You were actually in this. What did you think about this?’”

Denver Nuggets Assistant Coach JJ Barea, left, and Head Coach David Adelman watch from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Randall Benton)
Denver Nuggets Assistant Coach JJ Barea, left, and Head Coach David Adelman watch from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Randall Benton)

Ironically, the central hub play style that Barea has spent most of his career around is the opposite of how he describes Puerto Rican hoops. “We like a lot of one-on-one,” he said, laughing. “We try to get away from it, to get a little bit more of the ball movement. But Puerto Rico basketball is passion. We play with a lot of passion.”

And everything that’s Puerto Rican, he feels passionate about. As a player, he was similar to Jokic in that he says he was always on a flight home the day after the season ended. He spends most of his time outdoors when he’s home, either on a beach or golf course. He speaks lovingly of the coffee and the food. “Anything you can do with a plantain will do it,” he said. “From mashed plantains to sweet plantains to fried plantains, stuffed plantains with stuff in it.”

His passion project in recent years has been the construction of a sports complex in the heart of San Juan, the island’s capital city, where his family is still living this season (with plans to join him in Denver next year, like Jared Dudley’s).

Previously an abandoned private school, the complex will include three basketball courts and a soccer field. Barea says the national team plans to use it, and his “dream” is for the Nuggets or Mavericks to someday hold training camp in Puerto Rico.



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Denver, CO

Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others

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Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others


Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.

Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.

Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.

Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.

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At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.



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Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines

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Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines


The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.

Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.

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At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.

“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”

One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.

Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.

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“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”

The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.

Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.

“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”

McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.

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“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”

While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.

“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”

More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.

Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.

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Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.

“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.

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Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy

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Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy


Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.

Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.

The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.

On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

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“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”

Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, looks at buffalo at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

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Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.

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“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”

The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.

“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”

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Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore speaks from the First Creek Open Space in northeast Denver about the possibility of building the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy at the site.

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Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.

“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.

“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.

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Rick Williams, president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy, reads a sign at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

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He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”

The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.

Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.

The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.

And the work is just beginning.

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“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”

Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:

“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”

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