Knicks Star RJ Barrett To Partake In Team Canada World Cup Push
Whoa, Canada.
New York Knicks star RJ Barrett is heading back north this summer as one of 14 players set to represent Team Canada in its push to return to the Olympic Games. Barrett and his compatriots have all inked three-year commitments that will enlist them for all international competitions through the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The team will first look to capture a berth in next year's FIBA Basketball World Cup in Asia, with qualifying matchups scheduled for July 1 and 4 against the Dominican Republic and the US Virgin Islands respectively.
Barrett is the son of Team Canada general manager/executive vice president Rowan, who previously repped the team in an on-court capacity in several tournaments, including the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney (the squad's last Olympic appearance to date). The team will be led by Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse and other notable names joining Barrett on the roster include Dillon Brooks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, and Dwight Powell.
The younger Barrett, 21, recently wrapped up his third season in New York, one that saw him set a new career-best in scoring at 20 points a game, becoming the youngest player in Knicks history to reach that landmark. From a Knicks perspective, his time in Canada will be a good opportunity to see if there are any lingering side effects from a knee injury sustained in the penultimate game of the 2021-22 season. Barrett has been viewed as one of the team's most stable building blocks after arriving in New York as the 11th overall pick in the 2019 draft.
Previous Canadian endeavors for Barrett include a stellar showing in the 2017 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Egypt. The Duke alum and Ontario native led all scorers with 21.6 points per game en route to a gold medal, Canada's first in any FIBA-sanctioned international tournament.
