Juan Ignacio Sanchez

Topics: Argentine basketball players, Olympic basketball players of Argentina, Olympic gold medalists for Argentina, Spanish-Argentines

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

Sanchez was first called up to the senior national team in 1998. With Argentina, Sanchez played at the World Championship 1998 and 2002 (silver medal), the South American Championship 1999 (silver medal), and the 2004 Olympic Games (gold medal).

In Europe, Sanchez won the Euroleague with Greek club Panathinaikos, and became the second best point guard in the Spanish League with Etosa Alicante. He transferred to Spanish Unicaja Malaga 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. On August 13 2007, he signed with FC Barcelona.