Canadian College Basketball Player RJ Barrett Is A Top NBA Draft Pick This Year
Basketball star RJ Barrett has been absolutely killing it on the courts, and it looks like it's not just fans who have been noticing, but the NBA as well. Canadian college basketball player RJ Barrett is expected to be a top pick for the 2019 NBA Draft. He announced today that he is officially entering the draft this year. The Canadian star has definitely been making us proud as he played college ball this season, and we can't wait to see him rep Canada as an NBA player.
Barrett is expected to be a top-three pick for the NBA draft, which is a huge deal. We obviously don't know which team he'll be drafted to, but if he ended up playing in his home province with the Toronto Raptors, we are sure that fans would be incredibly excited.
The college basketball star announced today in a video on his Twitter that he would be leaving Duke University in order to enter the 2019 draft and play for the NBA.
"It was a dream of mine to play at Duke ever since I was a young kid. It's also a dream of mine to play in the NBA and have great success there," Barrett says in the video. "After discussing it with my family and coaches, I've decided that I'll be declaring for the 2019 NBA Draft."
Check out his full video announcement below!
I want to thank God, my family, my coaches and everyone that has helped me reach this decision 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/z3GwdcV2ht
Many basketball fans have been impressed with RJ Barrett ever since he started his varsity run with Duke one year ago. He even already has nearly one million followers on Instagram!
The star is definitely one of the biggest names in college basketball right now. So it's not surprising that he is forecasted to be a top-three pick for the NBA. Many are excited to see him take his skills to the next level.
RJ Barrett is a 19-year-old from Mississauga and he is a six-foot-seven forward. He averaged 22.6 points for the 2018-2019 season while he played for the Duke Blue Devils as a freshman, which is an impressive Atlantic Coast Conference-best, according to The Globe and Mail.
Zion back pic.twitter.com/uLajsDwIak
He was previously expected to enter the NBA as a lottery pick. His basketball coach at Duke, Mike Krzyzewski, even predicted that the leading scorer would become an NBA player very soon. He said a few months ago that Barrett was “going to be here a very short time" playing for Duke, The Globe And Mail reports.
Barrett significantly helped his college team, the Duke Blue Devils, take the number one spot in the final AP Top 25, as well as the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
This Mississauga star isn't the only Canadian college basketball player that will be entering the NBA draft pick this year. Several other players, also hailing from Ontario, have made the same decision to leave college basketball to go into the NBA – Mfiondu Kabengele, Ignas Brazdeikis, Simi Shittu and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
We'll be able to find out which NBA team is fortunate enough to get RJ Barrett's basketball skills when the draft takes place this summer on June 20 in New York.