Jose Barea was born and raised in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico he moved to Miami when he was 17 , joining the Miami Tropics program, He attended the Miami Christian School, playing in the school team his last year of high school, scoring 24.8 points per game. He was selected to Florida’s All-State team. Barea went to Northeastern University in 2003 until 2006. Barea was selected to the All-America East First Team twice. Barea finished the college second all-time as scorer with 2,209 points and assist with 721.

During his first year (2002/03), Barea scored 17.0 points per game, he made a record scoring 400 points and 100 assists in a season, first freshman in the history of the college, During his second year (sophomore 2003/04), Barea was second in the conference in average scoring with 20.7 points per game and assists (5.8 apg). During his junior year scored 22.2 points per game and 7.3 assist. During his last college year (season 2005–06), Barea finished the season with 8.4 assist per game (3rd in the country), scoring a season-high 32 points and was named CAA Player of the Year.

After college he was undrafted in 2006 NBA Draft, but he was signed by the Dallas Mavericks, after the NBA Vegas Summer league. He was one of the 7 Puerto Rican player to play in the NBA. He played in Puerto Rican team that in 2006 won the gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Games.

After 3 years (last is the 2010) as a pro in NBA he averaged 6.3 points and 2.4 assist per game in 16 minutes. http://espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3055

In the 2008/09 season, Josè Barea gain more minutes to play, because the Injuries to Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse and Jason Terry. These problems opened the door to the young talent. His coach, Rick Carlisle, tried a new lineup with 3 guard which were Barea, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry, in that shinning period, Barea scored 26 points in a game, his career high, playing as a starter in the first round of the Playoffs. His coach choose to replace Antoine Wright with the young Porto Rican in a vain effort to try to stop Tony Parker, play maker of the San Antonio Spurs, that was astonished in that Playoffs. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jose_barea/