Sportingbet January MVP: Juan Carlos Navarro, Regal FC Barcelona

One of world basketball's signature superstars arrived to the Top 16 coming off the least-productive two months of his Euroleague career, including his longest absence from the competition due to injury. Three amazing weeks later, Juan Carlos Navarro is Euroleague Basketball's choice as Sportingbet January MVP. The first half of the Top 16 proved one thing for certain: "La Bomba" is back, as evidenced by Regal F.C. Barcelona's unbeaten 3-0 record and Navarro's place atop the scoring charts. After scoring only 24 points over an eight-game span since October - and not playing half of those due to a back injury - Navarro scored at least that many in each of the first two Top 16 games. The first of those was a double-digit victory over the best team of the regular season, Maccabi Electra, ending its nine-game win streak. In that game, Navarro moved up to second place on the Euroleague's all-time scoring list. The second victory, thanks to Navarro’s game-winning shot on the road, was Union Olimpija's first home loss all season. By the time of its third victory, against Lottomatica Roma at home last week, Barcelona had become one of just three undefeated teams at the Top 16's halfway mark. Among those 3-0 teams, Navarro had the most points, most free throws and highest performance index rating. He also tied for the most three-point shots made and distributed the second-most assists. Most of all, with the Top 16 pressure turned up on all teams, Navarro seized the moment to put Barcelona's title defense back on track after a slightly rocky regular season. For all those reasons, Juan Carlos Navarro can add the Sportingbet January MVP award to his long list of accolades!

The Sportingbet MVP of the Month award now is in its seventh season. Although statistics and performance ratings are taken into consideration for the award, they alone do not determine who is honored. The winner is named by Euroleague Basketball based on his and his team's performance. The award for January was based upon the two Top 16 games played during that month and another played on February 2 and 3. Sportingbet, a Euroleague Basketball partner, is the sponsor of the MVP of the Month award. Just as the best Euroleague player each month combines performance and leadership for success, so does Sportingbet's sponsorship communicate its conviction to be the best betting brand in European basketball.

In a Top 16 opener that created huge buzz, last season's champion, Barcelona, hosted the regular season's best team, Maccabi. Navarro welcomed the visitors with a barrage of 3 three-pointers early in the first quarter. The third of those pushed Navarro past 2,500 points for his career, making him just the second Euroleague player, behind Marcus Brown, to achieve that mark. Later, Navarro helped finish an 81-71 victory with 6 points down the stretch that gave him 24 points to go with 5 assists and 8 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 27, matching the highest against Maccabi all season. If all his points were scored on three-pointers and free throws against Maccabi, on the road the next week in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Navarro took another route to the basket. By making 7 of 7 two-pointers on his way to 27 points, Navarro recorded his fourth-best scoring performance in his 190 Euroleague games since 2000. His last basket, on a running step-back shot with 90 seconds left, held up as the game winner as Barcelona escaped 67-68 before 13,000 fans of Union Olimpija. Against both Maccabi and Olimpija, Navarro played more than 35 minutes, something he had not done in back-to-back Euroleague games for an entire decade. Fortunately, his back was just as healthy the following week against Roma, when Barcelona needed him for no more than 24 minutes, in which he scored 13 points and dished 5 assists in a handy 80-56 victory. Over the first three games of the Top 16, Navarro had averaged 21.3 points, more than double his regular season average and a scoring rate that only three players in nine seasons have bettered over the course of an entire Top 16.

At 30 years old, Navarro has one of the fullest trophy cases in the sport of basketball. He is the reigning Final Four MVP, a former full-season Euroleague MVP and a four-time All-Euroleague First Team member. This will be his third monthly MVP award following January of 2006 and April of last season, when his Playoffs performance launched Barcelona to its latest continental title. With Barcelona, Navarro is a two-time Euroleague champion, having also won in 2003, and five-time Spanish League champion. He is also a reigning European champion, Olympic silver medalist and a former World Champion with the Spanish national team. The first three games of the Top 16 showed his fans, teammates and opponents that, despite the longest injury of his Euroleague career, Navarro's drive to add put his team back on the Final Four stage in their hometown of Barcelona this spring is as strong as ever. Juan Carlos Navarro will collect his latest trophy, the Sportingbet January MVP award, at an upcoming Euroleague home game.