Pepe Sanchez

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Juan Ignacio Sánchez Brown, also known as Pepe Sánchez (born May 8, 1977 in Bahía Blanca, Argentina) is an Argentine professional basketball player, and point guard for Spanish League club power AXA FC Barcelona and Argentina's 2004 Olympic basketball Tournament champion Argentine basketball team. Pepe Sánchez (1.93 metres, 6 feet 4 inches tall) was the first Argentine to play in the NBA, though he only played three unsuccessful seasons, with the Atlanta Hawks (5 games) Philadelphia 76ers (24 games), Detroit Pistons (9 games) and the Golden State Warriors, averaging only 5 minutes per game.

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Early Years

At age 12, he began playing for the youth team of Club Bahiense del Norte, together with future NBA star Emanuel Ginóbili. At age 17 he moved to Deportivo Roca for the 1994/95 season of the Argentine League, where he played point guard. The following year, he accepted a scholarship offer from Temple University in Philadelphia, but stayed in Argentina during the 1995-96 season, playing for Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca.

After his participation in the 1996 Youth Pan-American Tournament in Puerto Rico, where he represented Argentina's national basketball team, he moved to Philadelphia where he played for the Temple Owls college team for 4 years under Hall of Fame coach John Chaney, and finished his career as the #2 player in NCAA Division I in steals. As a junior, the crafty point guard guided the Owls to an appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Tournament Elite Eight, where they fell to Duke. Despite averaging only 5.6 points per game as a senior, he was named a Third Team All-American by the Associated Press. He earned a degree in history at Temple in 2000.

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Argentine National Team

Sánchez was first called up to the Argentine senior national team in 1998. With Argentina, Sánchez played at the FIBA World Championship in 1998 and 2002. Argentina won the silver medal at the 2002 Worlds. He also played in the 1999 South American Championship (where he won the silver medal), and at the 2004 Olympics (where he won the gold medal).

Sánchez's performance at the 2006 FIBA World Basketball Championship was quite satisfactory, with the Argentine press choosing him as the most outstanding player in the team

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European Pro Ball

In Europe, Sánchez won the Euroleague championship in the 2001-02 season while playing with the Greek League club Panathinaikos Athens. He became the second best point guard in the Spanish League with Etosa Alicante. He transferred to Spanish Unicaja Málaga in 2004, with whom he won the 2005-06 ACB League; it was Unicaja's first Spanish League title. After three years at Unicaja, he left as a free agent when his contract expired at the end of the 2006-07 season. On August 13, 2007, he signed with FC Barcelona.

Since he also possesses Spanish citizenship, his inclusion on the roster of any Spanish team does not count towards the foreign player intake limit allowed to teams in that country, or to teams anywhere in the European Union.

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Teams

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External Links

Retrieved from "http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php/Pepe_Sanchez"
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