R.J. Barrett is good, but 'nowhere close to where I want to be'

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - As his NBA career winds down, much has been made of Vince Carter’s impact on Canadian basketball. But to the newest generation of blue-chip talent from the north, that’s old-man stuff.

R.J. Barrett, the latest prodigy from the hoops hotbed of Southern Ontario, was born four months and two days after Carter’s seminal 2000 Slam Dunk contest performance, later marked as the de facto beginning of the rise of Toronto basketball. When Carter left the Raptors in 2004, Barrett was in kindergarten.

“I think I was just born,” Barrett said to laughter Monday at the Signature All-Canadian Showcase, essentially his last game as a prep before he enrolls at Duke in the fall. “Everyone always asks me about the Vince Carter stuff, but I was more Andrew (Wiggins) and Cory (Joseph)’s generation. I really think that opened the door.”

And that, in so many words, sums up the continuing maturation of Canadian basketball.

While the country produced NBA players before Wiggins, his emergence as Canada’s first prep superstar half a decade ago changed the game. Regardless of how Wiggins' pro career has worked out, no Canadian player before came with so much hype, and none has since - until Barrett.

It’s silly to compare teenage athletes, but Barrett is a more polished player than Wiggins at the same age, even though some of the accolades from their final years of high school are the same: Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Gatorade Player of the Year, McDonald’s All-American, and consensus future No. 1 NBA draft pick.

On Monday night, Barrett scored 47 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and blocked five shots in his White Team’s playground-style 138-135 loss, effortlessly dominating competition that included Arizona State recruit Luguentz Dort and Florida commit Andrew Nembhard, Barrett's Montverde Academy teammate.

Barrett’s journey to this point has been unique. He spent most of his early years in Europe, where his father Rowan Sr. played basketball in Greece, France, and Italy. It was a childhood not unlike that of Kobe Bryant, whose father played in Italy, and Barrett learned lessons on the court and off.

“My earliest (basketball memory) was my dad was playing professionally in France," he said, "so I remember being in one of the French leagues, having fun, playing around. ...

“Even with my game now I knew I could play a different style of basketball than they play in the States. … It’s helped me a lot, I can talk to everybody,” added Barrett, who speaks fluent French.

That brings us back to his favorite NBA team, the Raptors.

“Thank God, most of my childhood I was in Europe,” Barrett laughed when asked if he remembers the team’s lean, pre-Masai Ujiri years. “Since I came back to Canada when I was 9, they’ve had (DeMar) DeRozan.”

While he's a Raptors fan at heart, as a player, he’s an admirer of one of Toronto’s great tormentors, LeBron James. The King is a logical prototype given the fact that Barrett wants to do it all - and, so far, he can.

“He does everything on the court,” Barrett said of James.

Not unlike LeBron at the same age, Barrett looks the part. Far more physically developed than most 17-year-olds, he uses his broad shoulders to absorb picks and his 6-foot-7 height to tower over defenders setting up on the perimeter.

Related: R.J. Barrett is ready for the next step

The size and speed of that competition will start to radically change for Barrett at Duke next year, and later in the NBA. With his superior tools, however, the only intangibles left to worry about are long-term health and motor. His best friend Nembhard, who’s known him since childhood, isn’t worried about the latter.

“It’s different for me because I see him every day … but his drive, the dog in him, really sets him apart from the other guys,” Nembhard said. “He just wants to win every scrimmage. His competitiveness helps him a lot.”

When it comes to his country’s national team, Barrett has already accomplished something that Wiggins, Barrett's father, and R.J.'s godfather Steve Nash never could: leading Canada to an under-19 FIBA World Cup championship.

When Barrett and his teammates landed in Toronto after that win last summer, most of them were wearing their gold medals when greeted by a crowd awaiting their arrival. That crowd included Rowan Sr., who shared the backcourt with Nash the last time Canada played men's basketball in the Olympics - 2000, the same year R.J. was born.

Asked what that moment at Pearson Airport meant to him, Barrett was candid.

“It felt like I was carrying (my dad’s) legacy,” he said. “Playing for my country, and being able to bring back a gold medal is a great feeling. We didn’t really know until we came back and we saw everybody there (at the airport), so that was … amazing.”

Up next, Barrett joins yet another historic Blue Devils recruiting class that also includes Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, and Tre Jones. They've already gotten together on a group text, chatting daily - mostly about life in general. Any concerns about how Mike Krzyzewski may utilize their talents in ACC play in February don't come up.

“That’s coach’s problem,” said Barrett.

In the meantime, Barrett, who doesn’t turn 18 until June, will keep relying on a strong support system to help him navigate the path and the accompanying hype, hoping to keep an even keel.

“Be in the moment, and take one step at a time,” Barrett said. “Even though I’m getting a lot of attention right now, I’m still nowhere near close to where I want to be.”