VANCOUVER – RJ Barrett woke up early on Monday morning.
The prospect of once again playing a competitive NBA game spurred too much excitement for the Raptors star to sleep in.
“Man, I haven’t played a game since, like, April,” Barrett said after morning shoot-around at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.
The Raptors are on the West Coast for their first pre-season game against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.
“It’s just pre-season, but I’m excited to just play a game, play against somebody else, other than each other,” Barrett said. “We’ve been kind of beating each other up all summer, all pre-season.”
Toronto is looking to start strong after finishing last season with a 30-52 record and missing the playoffs.
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.
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.
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The 28-year-old NBA all-star is expected to play his first game in a Raptors jersey against the Nuggets.
Toronto got a taste of what the season might look like last week at the University of Calgary, where the Raptors held training camp.
“It’s been going well,” Barrett said of the pre-season prep. ” We’ve been getting after it. Guys have been playing hard. We’re enjoying it.”
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.
“I think basketball helps you have experiences that you normally wouldn’t,” Barrett said. “If it wasn’t for basketball, I wouldn’t have been able to travel many places. So just to be able to share my gifts and talent with the rest of Canada is amazing.”
Getting to play against another Canadian is special, too.
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.
“It’s always fun,” Barrett said of the matchup. “Jamal’s been a big brother to me for a long time. So any time I get to go up against him, it’s cool.”
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.
“I just know that it means so much as a young kid. So, I’m just trying to give that back,” he said.
“Being from Canada, we’re special people. You can kind of make it in anything that you want to do in life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press