Rowan Barrett did not push his son into basketball; he wanted him to choose it. RJ Barrett grew up to be a basketball prodigy, a Duke star for a year, the face and future of the sport in Canada, but he did not grow up with stage parents. He took to the sport and prodded his father along.



When RJ Barrett was a child, Rowan was reticent to let him play. He did not want him to jump in just because his father had made a career of it — at St. John’s, for a few preseasons in the NBA, and then across Europe. He did not want RJ to burn out. He didn’t want his son to put any pressure on himself that wasn’t real. But Rowan could not ignore the calling. In Dijon, when the family lived in France, they nearly rigged their home to keep RJ, a toddler, away from basketball. The toy room they put together for him had everything, including a small hoop, but no ball. So RJ started dunking a soccer ball. When Rowan took out the soccer ball, RJ started dunking the...