Oh, to be young and healthy and talented and famous and about to be very rich.
Who wouldn’t sign that card, and be lifted from the depths of a lumpy Sunday evening couch, Monday morning looming?
But everything comes with a catch. There’s always a downside.
For RJ Barrett, it came at Capitol One Arena in Washington DC, the joint packed, millions around the world glued to their televisions elsewhere.
With six second left and Barrett’s Duke University Blue Devils trailing Michigan State by two points Sunday night, Barrett only had to sink two free throws and – presuming a defensive stop – to send a thrilling Elite 8 game into overtime.
Succeed there and Barrett and his freshman superstar teammate Zion Williamson would be leading No. 1-ranked Duke to the Final Four, two wins from a national championship and a permanent place in history.
When I met with Barrett on campus in Durham a few weeks ago, the prospect of reaching those heights energized him. A small handful of Canadians have ever been on NCAA championship-winning team, none had ever been a star on one.
“I remember winning the gold medal for Team Canada [at the U-19 World Championships] and all the love and support I received at home,” he told me. “So I just can’t imagine what it would be like for Canada if we were able to win and I could go back home and say ‘I’m a champion.’ I feel like that would do a lot for our country.”
It’s not happening. Barrett missed his first shot and then – while trying to miss his second intentionally to give Duke a chance at the ensuing rebound and a chance to score – accidently made his second.
The game was over and, in all likelihood, so is Barrett’s college career as it is almost certain he’ll declare for the NBA draft in June.
Hey, it was fun while it lasted, right?
Barrett set a record for freshman scoring at Duke, an ACC freshman scoring record and per sports-reference.com was the first freshman in their data base – which stretches back 26 years – to average at least 22.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He recorded the first point-rebounds-assists triple-double in the 39 seasons Mike Krzyzewski has coached at Duke and became the first freshman to record double-digit assists in the NCAA tournament for the Blue Devils. It was a season of milestones, which sadly ended with a thud.
What do you think the good people of Twitter were focusing on Sunday night?
There was definitely a ‘what have you done for my lately’ kind of vibe:
And those were just my mentions when I made a plain point – missing that free throw was a tough way for Barrett to end an incredible season.
Barrett’s mentions were, um, more direct.
This is the path he’s chosen, of course, and this being 2019, he’s going to have to figure out how to thrive with the awareness that at any moment he chooses to open up a social media app, he runs the risk of being told he’s a choker, a loser, a failure or worse.
Consider it a life skill.
Failing under pressure is nothing new. Not everyone wins and even winners leave with scars. As Michael Jordan said “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Chris Webber famously called a timeout in the 1993 NCAA Championship game when his Michigan Wolverines were trailing by two with 11 seconds left. Technical foul, UNC ball, game over.
The 1982 national championship game was decided not on Jordan’s famous 17-footer with 15 seconds left, but when Georgetown’s Fred Brown mistook UNC’s James Worthy for a Georgetown teammate and handed him the ball and the win.
Kobe Bryant shot just 31 percent for his career when taking game-winning or game-tying shots in the final 24 seconds of games. Last season, LeBron James was barely 50 per cent on free throws in the 15 seconds of games, according to ESPN.
Pressure breaks pipes but also makes diamonds.
In Barrett’s first grand moment on the world stage, the pressure got to him. He missed a free throw his team desperately needed and he made one they needed him to miss. After knocking down a go-ahead three with 1:41 left, Barrett missed a tough shot in the lane; air-balled a three with nine seconds left and even on the drive that put him on the line, he didn’t notice Williamson lumbering to the rim, a quick dish away from a devastating dunk that would have tied the game, but the pass never came. Barrett finished with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists and played every minute of a game that was played as if being squeezed by a vice. But he made seven turnovers and did not have a final 100 seconds he’ll feel good about.
“Every day we came in, worked our butts off, and we really gave everything that we had all season long, and we had so much success. So to see that happen at the end …,” Barrett said to reporters in Washington. “All credit to them. They played a hell of a game. But for it to be over for us is heartbreaking.”
Barrett is 18 and a long way from a finished product as a basketball player. His off-the-ball defense has miles to go before he’s at an NBA level. He’s an improving shooter but needs to add more to his game to become the kind of NBA player that will justify a being taken No. 2 or No. 3 in the draft – with Williamson universally expected to be taken first.
Barrett is a willing passer but still has a tendency to force his offence when all the chips are down. Most coaches can live with that – better to work with that willfulness than figure out how to win with players who run from the ball when things get hot and sticky.
But at age 18, Barrett has done incredible things. None of the long line of NBA lottery picks from Canada had a freshman season that could compare with Barrett’s and very few NBA all-stars ever did either. Barrett’s best basketball is ahead of him.
But fly high and there will always be people ready to see you fall and some who would be happy to help bring you down.
Barrett can no longer be a stranger to that. He’s 18 and famous in 2019.
May he keep rising.
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