The smart choice
R.J. Barrett is thinking his way to the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft
If you spend a moment tracing the athletic roots of R.J. Barrett, Canada’s best teenage basketball prospect since Andrew Wiggins, you can easily ignite a family debate about his talent’s precise source.
Maybe it’s his father, Rowan Barrett. Now the executive vice president and assistant general manager of Canada Basketball’s men’s program, the elder Barrett first came to our attention as a power-dunking Toronto high-schooler who became a 2000 Canadian Olympian and a longtime European pro.
Or maybe it’s his mother, Kesha, an NCAA sprinter and long jumper. The maternal branch of R.J.’s family, after all, includes an aunt who ran for a Jamaican 4x100-metre relay team that won a world championship, not to mention grandparents who qualified for Jamaica’s national sprint squad.
“You talk to my wife’s side of the family — R.J. didn’t get any of his athleticism from me; he got it from them,” Rowan Barrett was saying recently, laughing a little at the friendly tug-of-war for familial bragging rights. “The fact that I could run and jump and put my head over the basket gets no love from that family.”
Whoever gets the credit, it’s safe to say R.J., short for Rowan Jr., enters any gym with hereditary advantages to rival Wiggins. The 22-year-old Wiggins, the six-foot-eight son of former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins and Canadian Olympic sprinter Marita Payne, recently signed a five-year contract extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves worth $148 million (U.S.).
But there are those who would urge you to look beyond the sparkling gene pool when the discussion turns to the 17-year-old R.J.’s oncourt upside — a discussion that reached fever pitch Friday when Barrett spent part of his afternoon unveiling his choice of NCAA programs live on TSN, picking from a previously announced short list that included Duke, Kentucky and Oregon.
Consider the viewpoint of Dwayne Washington, R.J.’s coach on the Nike UPlay Canada elite travel team the past few years. Washington said recently that he sees the six-foot-six, 195-pound Barrett — the No. 1 player in this fall’s NCAA recruiting class and the favourite to be selected No. 1 overall in the 2019 NBA draft — as a future franchise cornerstone in the NBA. But in explaining the seeds of that potential genius, Washington was quick to debunk a popular misconception.
“People think he’s an AfricanCanadian guy who’s running and dunking. No, no, no. This guy’s cerebral . . . He’s not the fastest guy, he’s not the tallest guy, but he’s the smartest guy,” Washington said. “His only genetic trait that’s probably freakish is his lateral quickness . . . His dad jumped through the roof; R.J. doesn’t have that. But he’s smart. And he knows how to use what he has.”
R.J.’s well-rounded game was most prominently on display this past summer when he led Canada’s U19 national team to a landmark victory at the world championship in Egypt, racking up 38 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in an epic semifinal win over the United States en route to the gold medal and tournament MVP honours. R.J., who was as much as two years younger than some of the players in that event, came into the training camp as one of a handful of possible contributors and emerged as the team leader.
“He’s got a little bit of James Harden in him,” said Roy Rana, Canada’s U19 coach, speaking of the NBAer to whom R.J. is most often compared. “They’re both lefties. (R.J.) has the ability to play pick and roll. He really can play point guard. He’s an exceptional passer. He’s an exceptional finisher at the rim. He’s got a chance to be really, really special offensive player as his shot continues to improve and his body gets stronger. But he’s very well-rounded. He’s a complete player who can do it all . . . His ceiling is unlimited.”
If his future is basketball-centric, Rowan said he and Kesha were careful not to push R.J. as an athlete. He partook a diverse selection of sports as a youngster — especially soccer, the preferred playground game of France, where the elder Barrett spent the bulk of his pro career. And the family has embraced a community philosophy to the development of both R.J. and younger brother Nathan.
“You know, it takes a village,” Rowan Barrett said.
With that in mind, Rowan Barrett pointed to a long list of coaches who have impacted R.J.’s development. There were early days with the Brampton Warriors and coach Mark Wharton, who began taking teams south to compete against older U.S. competition going back to Grade 7.
“We always pushed our kids to be the best in the world, like ‘Why not us? Why can’t we do it?’ ” Wharton said.
There was the guidance of Tarry Upshaw, now the coach at Ridley College in St. Catharines.
“(Upshaw) did a phenomenal job of teaching R.J. to play systematically, moving, cutting, passing, reading,” Rowan Barrett said.
And there was input from Dave DeAveiro, the McGill University coach who headed the national cadet team on which R.J. starred; Michael Meeks, the former Canisius College star who’s now the national player-development guru; and Rana.
Washington, who Rowan Barrett credits with “reaching inside R.J. and bringing out his best,” called it “significant” that R.J. chose Florida’s Montverde Academy to play his final few high school seasons. Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle has guided the careers of No. 1 NBA draft picks Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving, among other pros. But the program is famed for being anything but a country club, complete with boot-camp-style workouts.
“He could have gone anywhere, and he went to a place where they’re treating him like, ‘You’re nothing. You have to work,’ ” Washington said. “It shows that he’s been trying to really grow, trying to stretch himself.”
Perhaps a little of that comes from R.J.’s relationship with his godfather. That’d be Steve Nash, the twotime NBA MVP famed for his talent-stretching commitment to career-long self improvement. Nash, an ex-teammate of Rowan’s and a close friend of the family, bought R.J. his first crib, and he’s been a regular presence ever since.
“Now Steve’s there to give R.J. advice, to tell him, ‘Hey, R.J., you’ve got to help pull your team together at this moment. Don’t just wait for the other guy to do it,’ ” Rowan Barrett said. “R.J. feels like he’s the underdog. He doesn’t feel like he’s some sort of golden child who’s had a silver spoon in his mouth. And Steve’s given him those messages about being the underdog. ‘You are Canadian. We’ve still got to make a mark.’ ”
Still, with a father and a godfather essentially running Canada Basketball, Rana said it was important R.J. be held to a higher standard than the rest of the world championship roster. Not to worry.
“I saw no entitlement whatsoever,” Rana said. “I just saw a humble young man willing to do whatever it took to help his team gel and come together.”
Said Wharton: “A kid like that, with the world at his feet right now, he could go a lot of different ways. But R.J.’s not like that. He’s a very humble young man.”
A humble and driven one. If Wiggins emerged as a No. 1 NBA selection in 2014 despite questions surrounding the intensity of his internal fire, the early scouting report on R.J. Barrett contains no such caveat. His still-spotty jump shot is among the current red flags (albeit one that figures to be easily overcome with hard work). And Washington, for his part, likens Barrett’s competitive streak to Kobe Bryant’s, albeit minus the ball-dominating selfishness.
“He’s a giver — he wants to see those around him happy,” Washington said.
For all the athletic gifts, then, Washington said R.J. bears more of an on-court resemblance to the playmaking Nash than to his highflying dad.
“He’s more like the godfather than the father,” Washington said.
He also offered the future coaches of a promising Canadian a piece of friendly advice.
“If the game is tied or you’re down one or up one with 10 seconds left, and R.J. has the ball, the worst thing you can do is call a timeout,” Washington said. “Let’s not try to outcoach guys who are smarter than us on the court. That’s his domain. I’m telling you, he’ll make a better play than you can draw up. The best players are going to make the best plays.
“This is why R.J. is special.”