Ian Begley, SNY.tv | Twitter |
About six weeks after Duke's loss to Michigan State in the Elite Eight, RJ Barrett was in California with Zion Williamson and trainer David Zenon. They were on the West Coast for something totally unrelated to college basketball, but the defeat was still on Barrett's mind.
"He was saying, 'We should have had that game,'" Zenon says. "(My teammates and I) should have done this and we should have done that. He had four or five things that he listed that the players needed to do."
As he reeled off the specific issues, it was clear how much the loss still bothered Barrett.
"He was in mourning after that loss," says Dwayne Washington, who has coached Barrett since he was 12. "Most people would have been like, 'I'm going to the league, I'm going to be a top-five pick. (Let's move on).'... He was burning."
That competitive drive has shaped Barrett as a player and person throughout a decorated high school career and his season at Duke. And those close to Barrett believe it will lead to success at the next level.
"Winning is the only thing that matters to him," Washington says. "There's no compromise.... Everything he's been about has been about winning, excellence, not being afraid to compete at the highest level, the biggest stage."
Barrett will step onto the biggest stage of his life on Thursday night when he shakes commissioner Adam Silver's hand and puts on the hat of the team that drafts him. If everything goes the way it's projected, Barrett will have a blue Knicks hat on when he walks off the Barclays Center stage. New York is expected to select Barrett with the No. 3 pick.
And if they do, the immediate question some long-suffering Knicks fans will ask about Barrett is, can he handle the Big Apple?
Those who have spent time around Barrett believe the answer is a resounding yes.
"There's one guy in (the draft) that's built for New York City and that's RJ Barrett," says Rae Miller, an assistant coach at Montverde Academy, where Barrett played high school basketball. "He has the personality, the level of play that New York enjoys and he has the character."
"He's been raised with a New York mentality," says Washington, adding: "He is what people say New Yorkers are supposed to be -- aggressive, determined, confident and always pushing the envelope. That's how you get to greatness."
Barrett has embraced the idea of playing for the Knicks, a franchise that has won just one playoff series in the past 19 years. He's only met and worked out for New York in the weeks leading up to the draft, eschewing workout invites from other teams with top picks.
"This is the place I want to be, so I hope they draft me," he said earlier this month.
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If you talk to enough people around Barrett, a clear picture starts to emerge. There are 'two RJs,' to borrow a phrase Washington uses.
There's 'off-the-court' RJ.
"Everybody seems to gravitate toward him. He exudes confidence and humility. His stature is how he doesn't let that define him," Washington, the director of the UPLAY Canada grass roots program, describes it.
That demeanor has made Barrett a natural leader.
"He's a great locker room guy. He gets the temperature in the room pretty quickly," says Zenon, an NBA/NCAA trainer -- but not Barrett's personal trainer -- who spent time with Barrett and Williamson at Duke regularly this season. "He's able to relate to a lot of guys."
Then there's on-the-court RJ.
Washington, a Bronx native, says Barrett embodies the traits on the court that New Yorkers, in particular, can appreciate: an insatiable drive combined with an unrestrained competitive streak.
"This kid is like a real 1988 New Yorker. He's not some 2016 Instagram model. He's trying to kill you," Washington says.
https://www.sny.tv/knicks/news/why-...ett-is-built-to-succeed-in-new-york/308126250