Before RJ Barrett would join Duke, after earning Naismith Prep Player of the Year and Gatorade
National Player of the Year accolades in his final high school season.
Before RJ Barrett would clock in over 700K followers on Instagram.
Before RJ would lead Team Canada to a championship in the FIBA U19 World Cup in Cairo, Egypt
and earn himself a gold medal.
RJ Barrett's – the biggest name to come outta Canada since Tristan Thompson and this
kid ain't giving us a rep off the court.
RJ's backstory is almost like something out of a science fiction film.
Both parents were professional athletes, his mom a sprinter and long jumper and his dad
a professional B-Baller.
It's like they borrowed the Laver Ball family formula.
On top of this, RJ even has Steve Nash as his certified God Father.
Despite the potential his parents never forced young RJ to get into basketball, he naturally
gravitated towards the sports and decided at the age of 12 that he was going to set
his sights on the NBA and make it to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
At 15, he reached his father height of 6 foot 6 and has became the most decorated teenage
basketball player in North America since LeBron James.
His, coach, Coach K at Duke University has stated that RJ will be “One of the best
players in the NBA right away”.
Were trying something new, I'm gonna ask you guys a trivia question.
Who is RJ Barrett's celebrity crush?
Sound off down below, the answer will be at the end of this video.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden, documenting the life and career of RJ Barrett prior to
fame – here for you on Before They Were Famous.
This story touches near and dear to my heart cause RJ is from the same suburban city here
in Canada as yours truly.
You guys requested this video from our Zion Williamson vid that dropped last week, it
did pretty good.
As always, be sure to let us know who is next in the comments down below, we’re thinking
Tacko Fall, but you guys gotta let us know… you know where.
Alright, let’s get into RJ.
Rowan Alexander Barrett Jr was born on June 14th 2000 in good ol' Toronto, Ontario Canada.
Both is parents are of Jamaican heritage, his mother Kesha Duhaney was an NCAA sprinter
and long-jumper and her sister was a world-champion sprinter who ran in the Olympics for Jamaica…
No bobsledding for her.
His dad, Rowan Berrett Sr. played professional basketball internationally in countries like
Argentina, Venezuela, Greece, Israel, Italy & France and would take his family with him
around the globe.
During their time in France RJ learned to speak some French, something he would stick
to learning even when the family returned to Canada.
Growing up his dad was a superstar, RJ told Spots Centre.
“Everywhere we go, people are always talking to him.
It’s just something you have to live up to.”
His father was also the Captain of the Canada National Team and played alongside Steve Nash.
The two must've been close because he made Nash is eldest sons God Father.
In fact Steve Nash bought RJ his first crib.
I actually heard a crazy story about Steve Nash over the weekend, maybe we should make
a before they were famous on him.
Let’s get back to RJ. Despite his dad making a career out of Basketball he didn't force
it on his sons, he recalled when RJ was just a child.
“We had a microphone in there, a football, a soccer goal, tennis rackets.
But we had a little mini-hoop, and he kept gravitating toward that.
Pretty soon, that was all he was playing with.”
When his dad retired the family settled in Mississauga, Ontario Canada and RJ kept expressing
a love for the sport.
With his mothers encouragement RJ Sr began to train RJ and his younger brother Nathan.
Speaking about the coolest place in Mississauga RJ said:
“Square One Mall.
It’s ten minutes from my house.
People here don’t know much about Canada but (Mississauga) is a pretty cool place to
be.”
Shout out to Square One, 10 minutes from my mom and dads house as well.
While attending Horizon Jeunesse in Clarkson Mississauga he led his team to the city title
for French elementary schools and was named MVP.
RJ played all sorts of sports trying a little bit of everything including ,100 meter sprinting,
high jump, soccer and a little bit of lacrosse which is Canada's national sport.
He also found time for something you wouldn't expect:
In grade 7 RJ was forced to choose between soccer and basketball and the decision was
an easy one.
He became part of Canada's Basketball Junior Academy which brought together the best players
in his age group for a number of weekends over the winter as well as a week-long camp
focusing on training and conditioning principles, technical skills and the nuances of the international
game.
This also had him competing for the provincial Ontario team.
It was at this age he had decided that he was going to push himself to make it to the
NBA.
He studied the game play of LeBron and Kevin Durant endlessly and would practice all their
moves at home playing on a neighbours court putting in endless hours of practice.
He quickly began to show an aptitude for the game that his father never had at his age.
Raising a sports prodigy becomes a commitment for the entire family.
RJ's parents would get up early in the morning to drive him to workouts and also commit to
driving him across the country, we’re talking 13 or 14 hour drives.
This would be for those basketball tournaments.
The only games his dad ever missed was when he went to Egypt, but we'll get into that
one a little later.
For high school he was enrolled at St. Marcellinus Secondary in Mississauga, but he only attended for a week
he had been tapped as the best Canadian prospect for 2019.
so the kid had a few options.
With so much potential he decided to make the move to the United States and was enrolled
at Monteverde Academy outside of Orlando, Florida in 2015.
The same school Ben Simmons was just finishing up at. So they had a pretty good rep.
By now he had reached 6 foot 6 matching his fathers height.
In fact his father had actually just shaved off an inch.
It happens.
His transition to Monteverde came with stiffer competition and at first a little rough but
he quickly began to become a stand out star, earn MVP honours and would lead the academy
in scoring.
In his sophomore year he was ranked USA Today High School Sports All-USA Preseason Team
and was the MVP at Basketball Without Borders which is a three day camp held during NBA
All Star Weekend.
His coach from this camp, Fred Vinson has this to say about the promising young athlete:
"I love the kid.
I think he's really, really talented.
He can handle the ball, can get to the basketball at will; he's tough, he's competitive ... he
can go both ways, offensively.
Defensively he's not afraid to guard the best player on the other team.
As a coach you can't ask for much more, which is why he's the camp MVP."
He also kept his grades up, when asked about school he said his favorite class was Introduction
to Philosophy.
“We were able to discuss matters that are going on around the world and how you can
change things.”
I actually hate Philosophy. I failed it and it resulted in my not graduating high school on time. Let's move on.
By his Junior year, RJ had led Monteverde to become the number one ranked team in the
nation.
He swept through every major national Player of the Year award, Im talking the Naismith,
Wootten, Gatorade, USA Today, MaxPreps and more. After leading Montverde Academy to the
GEICO Nationals championship and an undefeated season at 35-0.
The Canadian stud averaged 28.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2 blocks and 1.5 assists
per game.
This is the same year he also competed in the FIBA Under 19 Basketball World Cup.
The team beat the USA and then they beat Italy and this resulted in RJ Taking home a
Gold medal. He was also named the tournaments MVP & named the tournaments all star five.
sadly that's the game where his father didn't make the trip out to Cairo.
You know them olympics, and them Canadian teams. It's just not in the budget.
He become the most decorated teenage basketball player in North America since LeBron James.
He finished high school as the overall number 1 ranked recruit.
He was recruited to plenty of schools including Arizona, Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, UCLA, and USC.
In the end, he felt at home at Duke and thought there was no better coach to have on his side
than gool ol' Coach K.
RJ made his pre-season debut for Duke on August 15, 2018 in an 86–67 win over the Canadian team
Ryerson Universirty Rams. Take that! *laughs* He probably felt bad.
At the end of Duke's regular season, Barrett was named a member of both the Sporting News'
All-American First Team and the All-ACC First Team alongside his teammate Zion Williamson.
Things keep heating up for the team with March Madness currently in full force at the time
of this recording.
By the looks of things we have a new Canadian superstar to root for after Tristan Thompson
went and let us all down by getting it on with them Kardashians.
Let's hope our boy RJ doesn't fall for the temptations of Hollywood, although while
working on this script.
I found out his celebrity crush is none other than Zendaya.
So uh.. well yeah. That's the answer to our question off the top.
The story doens't end there.
His younger brother Nathan is following in his big bros footsteps and has since joined
Montverde Academy.
So I might be making a video on him in a couple of years.
As for the rest of the story, well we're gonna wrap this one up here because this is Before They Were
Famous.
My name is Michael McCrudden.
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