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RJ Barrett inherited a Canada that Vince Carter built
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MYRON MEDCALFESPN Staff WriterJan 8, 201914 Minute Read
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Barrett, Clarke headline top college ballers from Canada
RJ Barrett, Brandon Clarke, Oshae Brissett and Ignas Brazdeikis are among the top Canadian college basketball players of 2018-19.
DURHAM, N.C. --*North Carolina*and*Duke*have always had a tense rivalry. But if the Blue Devils win a national championship this season, they might owe a former Tar Heels star some of the credit for their spoils -- because the paths of*Vince Carter, the longtime NBA standout and former UNC star, and*RJ Barrett, Duke's freshman phenom, are connected.
Barrett, whose 22.9 points per game leads all Duke players, is the face of a generation of Canadian players who grew up revering Carter, a former*Toronto Raptors*superstar who is now a reserve with the*Atlanta Hawks. Carter's between-the-legs slam at the 2000 NBA dunk contest -- four months before Barrett was born -- remains one of the all-time highlights of the event, which also featured then-teammate*Tracy McGrady.
"Vince and Tracy McGrady, they more inspired us taller, long, athletic guys," Barrett told ESPN. "OK, [Carter] is one of the best players in the league. 'Why can't I be that too? I look just like him.' That's where*Andrew Wiggins*comes from. And then just other guys following his footsteps."
The country's basketball fascination started before the Raptors arrived in 1995. But Carter's arrival as an exciting American hero, drafted in 1998, introduced Canadian basketball fans to a SportsCenter-worthy star who influenced youngsters in a country where one-fifth of the population consists of immigrants who may be more likely to embrace basketball and soccer over hockey, the nation's pastime. (A 2014 study by a Toronto-based research firm showed that basketball is the second-most popular sport behind soccer for youths ages 3-17 born outside of Canada.)
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https://a1-espncdn-com]The dunk heard round the world: Vince Carter at the 2000 NBA slam dunk contest.Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport/Getty Images
"I can recall walking down the streets of Toronto and you wouldn't see a kid dribbling a basketball as we would see in the United States, and that's a normal thing and you probably think nothing of it," Carter said. "And then years, two to three years later, particularly after that [2000] dunk contest, now you start seeing kids walking around with basketballs in their hands, dribbling a basketball. You start to see more basketball courts popping up around the city, more guys going to play pickup basketball, just the whole nine."
Before 2000, eight Canadians had been selected in the NBA draft. Since 2000, 19 Canadians have been drafted -- eight of them lottery picks. Four Canadians -- Barrett, Gonzaga's*Brandon Clarke, Arizona State's*Luguentz Dort*and Virginia Tech's*Nickeil Alexander-Walker*-- are projected first-round picks in ESPN's latest mock draft.
Other Canadians are lighting up the courts, too, and could lead their teams to league titles and NCAA tournament runs.*Iggy Brazdeikis*is Michigan's leading scorer.*Oshae Brissett*is averaging nearly a double-double at Syracuse.*Lindell Wigginton*and*Marial Shayok*are key players for an Iowa State team chasing an at-large berth and a Big 12 title.
It's Barrett, though, who has elevated the nation's global profile, a profile enlarged by predecessors like his godfather, two-time NBA MVP*Steve Nash; the*Denver Nuggets'*Jamal Murray, currently averaging 18.4 PPG; and Wiggins, who just reached 7,000 points in the NBA.
Last summer, Barrett led Canada's Under-19 squad to a gold medal in the world championships, the country's first in a FIBA event. He's also the starting shooting guard on a men's national team aiming for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
"I don't know if anyone saw it coming to this level," one former NBA executive said of Canada's rise. "It kind of exploded."
And on Tuesday, Carter will return to the place it all began for him in a road game against the Raptors -- the same night Barrett's Blue Devils play at Wake Forest (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).
"Vince Carter has, without a shadow of a doubt, been the most important, influential and transcending basketball player our country has ever seen," said Peter Yannopoulos, a former UMass assistant and a TV and radio analyst in Canada. "We are witnessing before our eyes the golden generation of Canadian basketball. Several have played an integral role, Steve Nash being a prominent one, but Vince is the reason our AAU teams started winning tournaments in the United States and why we have produced so many lottery and No. 1 overall NBA draft picks. Carter gave everyone the swag and confidence to rep not only Toronto, but all of Canada."
At a recent shootaround with his younger Hawks teammates, Carter didn't look his age -- 41, as a reminder -- as he took part in 3-point shooting drills.
"I've been fortunate to be around some good people," said rookie*Trae Young, who credits the veteran with guiding him through his first pro season.
"Air Canada" has influenced a multitude of players as one of a handful of candidates filling a void created when the stars of the 1990s retired -- and as the bridge between Canada's two eras of basketball.
In 1891, Canadian James Naismith invented the game of basketball while teaching at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. But his role in the game's history did not interrupt his country's immense love for hockey. That's not surprising, considering Canada's men's hockey team won six of the first seven gold medals at the Winter Olympics, between 1920 and 1952, and three of the past five. Beginning with the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Canada's women's hockey team won four consecutive gold medals.
So, entering the 1990s, Naismith's sport had a lot of ground to cover to attract a fraction of the attention hockey had enjoyed in Canada.
Basketball was growing in popularity that decade, though. Damon Stoudamire, the 1995-96 rookie of the year, led the Raptors before Carter was drafted. The Vancouver Grizzlies had arrived with the Raptors during the 1995-96 season. Bill Wennington (Montreal) won three NBA titles with the*Chicago Bulls*in the mid-'90s, and Rick Fox (Toronto) won three rings with*Shaquille O'Neal*and*Kobe Bryant*in Los Angeles a few years later.
Still, Canada was a country that had emphasized its winter sports over budding activities like basketball. The government devotes millions of dollars to Olympic sports through a program called Own The Podium, launched more than a decade ago. As recently as the 2016 Olympics, the program gave $2.2 million for men's basketball but $5.8 million to its (gold-medal-winning) curling teams.
Since the 1990s, though, cities like Toronto have become melting pots for immigrants, many from the Caribbean and Africa -- and many of whom have come to embrace basketball. Perhaps Ontario-native Barrett -- whose father, Rowan, is the son of Jamaican immigrants -- would have likely emerged as a preeminent talent with or without Carter's arrival.
The genetics are there. Barrett's mother, Kesha, ran track at St. John's and his aunt Dahlia Duhaney won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay with Jamaica in the 1991 world track and field championships. His father averaged 10.4 PPG as a senior at St. John's and played on the international circuit for more than a decade. Rowan also played with Nash, then an NBA All-Star, on Canada's national team, which finished seventh at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Canada's 2000 Olympics run coincided with the exploding popularity of Carter and the Raptors. Rowan retired in 2008, when RJ was 8 years old, and became the executive vice president and assistant general manager of Canada Basketball, the country's national program.
In his effort to find and develop the best talent in Canada, he created the Junior Academy in 2012, an operation that aims to identify and unify the top young players in the country. RJ joined Michigan's Brazdeikis and others in the program, which has access to a world-class training facility.
"We had them in the seventh grade, playing in [The Junior Academy], teaching them how to play, all of that, best on best," said Rowan, who also played with Carter during a brief stretch in training camp with the Raptors in the former All-Star's rookie season. "When I was coming up, I think I first came into the [national] program at 18, 19. Before you knew it, you were in college. The structure has grown. It's all year round, training athletes, ready if somebody needs something. ... We didn't really have that. It was [a] meet up every summer thing. There's much more funding and structure in place now to support the growth of Canadian athletes."
So RJ has been able to reap the benefits of more structured basketball and his father's own connection to the national level. When RJ was 12, Nash put him through rigorous workouts while the national team practiced on the other end of the court. Nash, who bought RJ's first crib when he was a baby, never hesitated when Rowan asked him to be his son's godfather. As teenagers, they'd become friends through their shared nationality, their love for basketball and their common interests.
"Steve is a better person than he was a basketball player," Rowan said.
They both loved Jamaican food, and Rowan admired Nash's "hip vibe" (he was fond of baggy shorts). The 6-foot-3 Nash also downplayed his NBA success. He never took his first-class seat when he played with the national team, instead granting the luxury to his larger teammates.
It all set the stage for RJ to emerge as a potential torchbearer for the next wave of Canadian basketball.
At 15, he led Canada to a silver medal in the Under-16 FIBA world championships. He spent his teenage years embarrassing players in American grassroots tournaments and international FIBA events on his way to becoming the No. 1 prospect in the 2018 class.
But some who tried to ignite programs struggled to find the cash to match the growing interest.
"I was trying to get the fans, the kids, the parents, the coaches, all the corporate world, the media to see that there was a lot of potential to go with this basketball thing because we had a lot of kids who were from the Caribbean, from Africa, from Europe, from South America, also from the U.S.," said Ro Russell, who founded his Grassroots Elite program more than 20 years ago. He said he couldn't get any sponsors.
[
https://a4-espncdn-com]Canada's RJ Barrett (5) looks to pass the ball as China's Yu Dehao (8) defends during the second half of a Pacific Rim Basketball Classic game in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June.Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press/AP Photo
Some tied to the game believe race played a role in the distribution of resources.
"We've had the talent but we've never had the opportunity," said Mike George, an agent who represents Murray,*Dillon Brooks*and other NBA standouts. "Back in the day, weren't too many brothas playing on the national team. Now obviously, you see the dynamics. It's more of a representation of what our country is. I think we've always had the talent level but we weren't able to get those guys. Now there's no real bias as to where a kid comes from."
All agree that Carter and the Raptors motivated a diverse generation of young athletes to dream of NBA futures and a new day for Canadian basketball's global status.
A Raptors team in the bottom half of attendance at the inception of the franchise enjoyed top-10 numbers in Carter's best years, which included two playoff runs in 2000 and 2001. Players such as the*Miami Heat's*Kelly Olynyk*and*Cleveland Cavaliers*big man*Tristan Thompson, both Canadians, attended Carter's camps in Toronto.
New grassroots programs emerged. Parents hired professional trainers for their hoops-hungry kids. Team Canada invested in programs that aimed to identify prodigies scattered throughout the country. Prep schools popped up and strengthened the brand.*Milwaukee Bucks*big man*Thon Maker*and Murray, the Nuggets' rising star, played at Orangeville Prep near Toronto.
"That was the special thing," Carter said. "I for sure didn't realize until later on, like, 'Wow.' We were able to change the game and the way hockey kids thought. Yes, we know the*Toronto Maple Leafs. They're the kings. We just wanted to be respected. But it took on a life of its own."
Russell, the AAU coach who couldn't find private money to run his program, found plenty of sponsors (and players) as the Raptors became Canadian icons. He credits Carter.
"He had corporate people saying, 'There's a product I think we can endorse,'" Russell said. "Vince created the buzz that basketball is an exciting sport."
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