DALLAS -- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban loaned the team plane to point guard J.J. Barea to transport food, water and supplies to Barea's native Puerto Rico to aid in the recovery from Hurricane Maria. 
 
 Barea left Monday afternoon and plans to return Tuesday night, missing the first day of Mavs training camp. 
 
 "I was really proud of J.J. and how quickly he got involved and how hard he worked to make all of this happen," Cuban told ESPN in a text message. 
 
 "That's a situation that he's got to take care of," coach Rick Carlisle said. "Mark gave him our team plane. They loaded up a bunch of stuff, supplies, etc., to take over to Puerto Rico, and they're going to turn around and come back. He's going to take his mom and grandmother back with him, and my understanding is his dad is going to stay over there and slug it out with all of the recovery efforts." 
 
 Barea, the NBA's only active player who is a native Puerto Rican, did not have any communication with his parents until Sunday. He quickly made plans for his trip home after communicating with family and figuring out where help was needed most. 
 
 Barea and his wife, Viviana Ortiz, a Puerto Rican actress and model, organized an online fundraiser after Hurricane Maria devastated their homeland last Wednesday, when it hit Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds. The storm caused major flooding and knocked out electricity and phone service throughout the island, much of which is expected to be without power for months. 
 
 Barea's fundraiser has generated more than $140,000. ||||| Dallas Mavericks guard J.J. Barea juggles for a photo during an NBA basketball team media day in Dallas, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/LM Otero) 
 
 J.J. Barea has done whatever he can to raise money for the hurricane relief efforts in his native Puerto Rico. 
 
 
 
 What he had not done until Sunday is talk to his parents. 
 
 He finally got through to them and found out they were safe, although the devastation in his home country is unfathomable. 
 
 "They're OK," Barea said Monday. "But it's still rough there." 
 
 He said he's hoping to either bring his parents to Dallas or go visit and help family and friends sometime in the near future.
– It usually carries very tall men from city to city across the continental US, but the Dallas Mavericks team plane made an important detour to Puerto Rico ahead of the team's first day of training camp Tuesday. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave the thumbs up for the plane to fly food, water, and other supplies to the hurricane-ravaged island Monday at the request of Mavericks point guard and native Puerto Rican JJ Barea, who also made the trip, reports ESPN. It came only a day after Barea was able to communicate with his family on the island for the first time since Hurricane Maria wrought havoc last week. Barea, 33, told the Dallas Morning News Monday that his family is safe, "but it's still rough there." Barea—who has already raised $140,000 for recovery efforts together with his wife, Viviana Ortiz, a former Miss Universe Puerto Rico—planned to return to Dallas with his mother and grandmother on Tuesday, said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. "That's a situation that he's got to take care of," Carlisle told ESPN. "I was really proud of JJ and how quickly he got involved and how hard he worked to make all of this happen," Cuban added. In a similar move, rapper Pitbull used his private plane to get cancer patients out of Puerto Rico so they could undergo chemotherapy, reports the New York Daily News. "Thank God we're blessed to help. Just doing my part," Pitbull said Tuesday. (Jennifer Lopez is also helping out.)