Navarro’s brush

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor’s London Calling) - If Juan Carlos Navarro is “an artist" as his Spanish national team coach Sergio Scariolo described him this summer, then he has created one masterpiece after another in his glorious career.

In the land of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, Navarro has year after year, since bursting onto the international basketball scene in 1998 with Spain's junior teams, painted many a beautiful picture.

As an 18-year-old, Navarro shot 43.8% from long range and averaged 14.9 points in Spain’s European Championship-winning campaign in Varna, Bulgaria.

The next year, at the World Championship for Junior Men in Portugal, the 1.92m shooting guard averaged 18.6 points as Spain won gold again. In that 94-87 title game win over the United States, Navarro had 25 points and six assists.

You might call these great works of art ‘Navarros’, and there are plenty to talk about.

Two stand out in the last six years.

At the 2006 World Championship Final, with Spain missing their tournament MVP Pau Gasol, Navarro hit four shots from the arc and finished with 20 points in a 70-47 blowout win over Greece.

His display at EuroBasket 2011 may have been the 31-year-old’s finest as he poured in an average of 18.7 points per game and was the MVP.

In one game, the Semi-Final Triumph over F.Y.R. of Macedonia, he had 35 points.

Knowing that Navarro will play at his fourth straight Olympics next summer in London is cause for celebration.

We’ll see his trademark sprint onto the court before the opening tip, when he darts from player to player, referee to referee, to shake hands.

That, effectively, is Navarro on the grid, revving his engine.

We’ll see a superstar in the prime of his career, backing down from no one, a player always ready to step up and take the big shots.

We’ll see a true Spanish basketball icon in London.

Three of his new Barcelona teammates raved about Navarro as a player, and a person, to FIBA.com.

“He is one of those guys that under pressure never changes his mentality, that he’s going to score,” point guard Marcelo Huertas said.

Huertas is also the point guard of Brazil’s national team and will be at the Olympics, too.

“He can do amazing things,” Huertas said.

“It’s a privilege to play with him.”

Chuck Eidson, who led Lietuvos Rytas to a Eurocup title and also reached last season's Euroleague championship game with Maccabi Tel Aviv, said: "I tell people all the time, as good as he (Navarro) is on the court, he's as good a guy off the court - which is rare.

"Usually the guys that are really good, well, they're not so much fun to be around.

“But he's a really good guy.

"In terms of basketball, you just get caught ball watching because he is that good and he's that much fun to play with.

"He's amazing."

Then there was CJ Wallace.

"Obviously he's a great player, but more than that, he's a great guy,” Wallace said.

"You would think that maybe a guy who I think is about to become the Euroleague's all-time leading scorer (Navarros’s 2,690 points trailed Marcus Brown’s 2,715pts going into this week’s game at Galatasaray) - he can't go anywhere in Spain without being mobbed.

"He's super humble, jokes around with everyone, plays games with everybody and is really, really helpful."

Truth be told, if there is one thing that Navarro does not relish, it’s answering questions about his talent, and his achievements.

He’d rather let his play do the talking.

When asked if the EuroBasket 2011 MVP award had in a way confirmed his status as one of Europe’s greatest-ever players, though, there is a glint in his eye.

"My life hasn't changed that much,” he said to FIBA.com.

“It seems that now, more people know me more than before but it's been a couple of years that I've been doing things well.

“But without a doubt, to win the MVP was a very important achievement in my career.”

The experience in Lithuania was, he admits, something never to be forgotten.

“Certainly to have won the MVP and defended the European title was all the more special,” he said.

“The years go by and to remain at the top and give that extra in the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final for me is a matter of pride."

FIBA