Back in March 2011, everybody in attendance at Jason Kidd’s Charity Casino Night turned heads after\u00a0J.J. Barea\u00a0arrived with his then-girlfriend Zuleyka Rivera. That’s because most of the people there recognized Rivera, who was crowned Miss Universe 2006.<\/p>\n
As expected, the roughly 5’10” guard was quizzed to talk about his 5’9″ girlfriend, who is also Puerto Rican. Barea came up with an epic quip that spoke volumes about how happy he was with their relationship.<\/p>\n
“She has NBA League Pass now,”<\/em>\u00a0Barea\u00a0told\u00a0ESPN, smiling.\u00a0“She watches our games. It’s pretty good, man.”<\/em><\/p>\n Before moving on to the next level, the pair had crossed paths a few times at celebrity events in Puerto Rico. As the 2010-11 NBA season progressed, Barea and Rivera grew closer and sweeter to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the former\u00a0Dallas Mavericks\u00a0backup point guard, it all started when he initiated a text conversation. Before they knew it, they were already fond of talking to each other and decided to have their first date when Rivera invited Barea to Miami.<\/p>\n “Text message,”<\/em>\u00a0J.J. said of how his relationship with Zuleyka started.\u00a0“I sent her a message to say hi, something simple like hope you’re doing good.”<\/em><\/p>\n “It was an awesome first date,”\u00a0<\/em>he revealed.\u00a0“We took a private boat in Miami Beach and then went to a restaurant and hung out. Then I had to go to Dallas the next day.”<\/em><\/p>\n Even though Barea and Rivera were already dating, they only officially became a couple when the beauty queen sent the NBA player a profound and provocative message \u2014\u00a0“I just Need You NoW!!!!!”<\/em><\/p>\n “We were talking back and forth, and I was like, ‘If you keep saying stuff like that, I’m going to retweet it,'”\u00a0<\/em>Barea recalled.\u00a0“She was saying I don’t believe you or you’re too scared to do that. I was like, ‘I’m going to do it, and everybody’s going to find out pretty quick.'”<\/em><\/p>\n “As soon as I did it,”<\/em>\u00a0he added,\u00a0“We were in the newspaper in Puerto Rico in like the next 20 minutes. My [friends] are happy for me; my teammates are happy for me, too. It’s cool. My family is happy as long as I’m happy. It’s all good.”<\/em><\/p>\n Related: Larry Bird named his favorite modern NBA superstar: “He goes all out all the time”<\/strong><\/p>\n J.J. and Zuleyka’s high-profile romance lasted about two years. In 2012, Rivera gave birth to their son, Sebastian Jose. However, by 2013, the spark had fizzled out, and the couple ended up splitting.<\/p>\n While they both chose to keep the reason for their breakup under wraps, the rumor mill at the time suggested a classic case of two people simply growing apart.<\/p>\n If anyone thought Barea’s luck with Miss Universe winners was a one-time fluke, he quickly proved them wrong. That same year, J.J. began dating Viviana Ortiz, who held the Miss Universe Puerto Rico 2011 title.<\/p>\n The relationship instantly grew deeper. Three years later, the couple tied the knot, just a few months after welcoming their daughter, Paulina, into the world.<\/p>\n Related: Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show throws subtle shade at the Lakers superstar: “Barea, the one who became champion before LeBron”<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in March 2011, everybody in attendance at Jason Kidd’s Charity Casino Night turned heads after\u00a0J.J. Barea\u00a0arrived with his then-girlfriend Zuleyka Rivera. That’s because most of the people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkmania.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Barea sealed the deal on Twitter<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Barea scored another Miss Universe<\/strong><\/h2>\n