{"id":193948,"date":"2025-10-06T22:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193948\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:12:07","slug":"raptors-star-rj-barrett-thrilled-for-pre-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193948\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors star RJ Barrett thrilled for pre-season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors’ RJ Barrett practices free throws during opening day of training camp in Calgary, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

RJ Barrett woke up early on Monday morning. <\/p>\n

The prospect of once again playing a competitive NBA game spurred too much excitement for the Raptors star to sleep in. <\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I haven\u2019t played a game since, like, April,\u201d Barrett said after morning shoot-around at Vancouver\u2019s Rogers Arena.<\/p>\n

The Raptors are on the West Coast for their first pre-season game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just pre-season, but I\u2019m excited to just play a game, play against somebody else, other than each other,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been kind of beating each other up all summer, all pre-season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto is looking to start strong after finishing last season with a 30-52 record and missing the playoffs. <\/p>\n

Barrett, who hails from Mississauga, Ont., led the team with 21.1 points per game last year, and he should have help from a healthier lineup as the new campaign begins. <\/p>\n

Former New Orleans small guard Brandon Ingram has healed from the ankle sprain that kept him sidelined after the Raptors acquired him from the Pelicans ahead of the trade deadline. <\/p>\n

The 28-year-old NBA all-star is expected to play his first game in a Raptors jersey against the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jaylen Clark, left, defends Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game this past Saturday in San Diego.Tony Ding\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Toronto got a taste of what the season might look like last week at the University of Calgary, where the Raptors held training camp. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been going well,\u201d Barrett said of the pre-season prep. \u201c We\u2019ve been getting after it. Guys have been playing hard. We\u2019re enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary was a new destination for the 25-year-old Canadian, who played with the national team at the Paris Olympics, but still relishes getting to see new places as a professional athlete. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think basketball helps you have experiences that you normally wouldn\u2019t,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for basketball, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to travel [to] many places. So just to be able to share my gifts and talent with the rest of Canada is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting to play against another Canadian is special, too. <\/p>\n

Barrett could face Denver point guard Jamal Murray on Monday. The 28-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., is heading into his ninth season with the Nuggets, and averaged 21.4 points per game in the 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun,\u201d Barrett said of the matchup. \u201cJamal\u2019s been a big brother to me for a long time. So any time I get to go up against him, it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett said he grew up watching Murray and other Canadians excel in the NBA, and he wants kids in the stands at Rogers Arena to know that their basketball dreams could come true, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know that it means so much as a young kid. So, I\u2019m just trying to give that back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Canada, we\u2019re special people. You can kind of make it in anything that you want to do in life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Raptors’ RJ Barrett practices free throws during opening day of training camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,459,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-193948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nba","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}