Juan Ignacio Sánchez

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 Panamerican Tournament in Puerto Rico, where he represented the junior national team of Argentina, 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 the NCAA in steals (he is currently in fifth place in career steals). As a junior, the crafty point guard guided the Owls to an appearance in the 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.

On October 2, 2000, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Philadelphia 76ers, after not being selected in the NBA draft. On October 31, 2000, he became the first Argentine to play in a regular season game in the National Basketball Association, firsting countryman Rubén Wolkowyski by a few minutes.

On February 22, 2001, he was traded along with Toni Kukoč, Nazr Mohammed and Theo Ratliff to the Atlanta Hawks, in exchange for Roshown McLeod and Dikembe Mutombo. He was waived on March 12, 2001.

On March 15, 2001, he was signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia 76ers. On October 10, 2002, he signed as a free agent with the Detroit Pistons.

On August 21, 2003, he was traded along with Clifford Robinson to the Golden State Warriors, in exchange for Bob Sura. He was waived on October 31, 2003.

Sánchez played a total of 38 games in his NBA career and recorded a total of 20 points, 21 rebounds, 49 assists and 16 steals. His final game was on April 16, 2003, in a 92–99 loss to the Boston Celtics where he played for 6 minutes and the only stat he recorded was 1 rebound.

In Europe, Sánchez won the EuroLeague championship in the 2001–02 season, while playing with the Greek Basket League club Panathinaikos. He also played in the Spanish League with Etosa Alicante. He transferred to the Spanish League club Unicaja Málaga in 2004, with whom he won the 2005–06 ACB League; 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.[2] On August 13, 2007, he signed with FC Barcelona.[3]

In July 2008, he signed with Real Madrid,[4] but he was released in April 2009.[5]