Young Canadian Stars Barrett, Nembhard, Shittu Will Be On Display on NBA All-Star Weekend

Of the 41 boys selected for this weekend’s Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp in New Orleans, seven are Canadians.

No other nation has more than three.

Canada’s impressive presence on All-Star weekend is further evidence that it is an ascendant nation in the world of basketball.

“The fact that there are seven athletes from Canada represented is pretty special,” said Rowan Barrett, the head of Canada Basketball. “Five of these athletes took part in our country’s first ever Junior Academy starting in 2012 and the other two have been a part of our provincial training programs in addition to their AAU programs. Six of the seven have been on our U16/17 National team.”

The Canadian group includes R.J. Barrett, Rowan’s son and the No. 1 player in the Class of 2019, according to ESPN, Simi Shittu, Luguentz Dort, Andrew Nembhard, Noah Kirkwood, Emmanuel Akot and Ignas Bradzeikis.

NBA and FIBA players and coaches, including Cheick Diallo (New Orleans Pelicans; Mali), Wayne Ellington (Miami Heat; U.S.), Justin Holiday (New York Knicks; U.S.), Meyers Leonard (Portland Trail Blazers; U.S.), Thon Maker (Milwaukee Bucks; South Sudan; BWB Americas 2015/BWB Global 2016) and Emmanuel Mudiay (Denver Nuggets; Democratic Republic of the Congo), will coach the top high school age campers from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Some of these young Canadian guys figure to be part of the Canadian Senior National Team in 2020 or 2024, when Canada hopes to challenge for a medal. The Canadians already feature players like Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Ennis, Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson.

“Now with all these players that have come through, I think we’re in strong position to [be among the elite by 2020],” Rowan Barrett said on The 4 Quarters Podcast. “We feel if we can get them all on the floor at the same time, with strong coaching in the coaching box, the sky’s the limit for us in 2020.”

On the recruiting front, Barrett, Nembhard, Dort and Shittu are all being recruited at the highest levels.

“It’s clear that there are a few schools in Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Texas, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Villanova, there have been a number of schools,” Rowan Barrett said of his son. “They key for us right now is letting him continue to focus on getting better as a player and that’s been a real focus for us. Every three months we want to be seeing marked improvement with him, as well as in the classroom, really getting ahead of his coursework. He’s hit the honor roll now and really getting ahead of that and giving himself all the options for what he wants to be able to do academically.

“We believe after this spring and summer we’ll open it up and start to look seriously at some of these schools and start to make some determinations about shortening the list and starting to make visits and doing that.”

The 6-3 Nembhard, a sophomore who shares the backcourt at Montverde (FL) Academy with Barrett, holds offers from the likes of Stanford, Villanova, Florida, USC, Virginia Tech and Missouri.

The 6-9 Shittu, a junior at Vermont Academy, has been hearing from Arizona, UCLA, Louisville, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Cal, Providence, UConn, Memphis, Kansas, Oregon and Michigan, while Notre Dame was in to see him this week.

Meantime, Louisville, Baylor, Florida, Oregon, UNLV and St. John’s are among those involved for the 6-3 Dort, a highly regarded point guard out of the Conrad (FL) Academy.

 

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