Rowan Barrett remembers when he was “hooked” on Canadian basketball.

"I remember watching Wayne Yearwood play back then and he was a really good player and I was thinking, ’man, that’s amazing,’ I’d like to play in the Olympics," recalled Barrett in an interview pertaining to the time when he was 15 years-of-age and watching the Canadian national team in action at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games.

It would be 12 years later that Barrett, born November 24, 1972 in Scarborough Ontario, would captain Team Canada to a 7th place at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  It was nine years prior that the 6-foot-5 guard made his debut for Team Canada at the Junior Men's FIBA Americas Championships in Edmonton.

But now in 2000 he was in the Olympics where he had back-to-back 21 point games in wins over Australia (101-90) and Angola (99-54).

Following graduation at West Hill Collegiate Institute (Scarborough, Ontario) Barrett attended St. John’s University (1992-1996).

As a pro he has played in Argentina, Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Spain and Venezuela. Barrett also captured scoring titles in the French and Israeli Premier Leagues, won championships in multiple nations and in 2004 was named Guard of the Year and a First Team All-Star in the French ProA League.

He also had his passport stamped while representing Canada at the 1998 and 2002 World Championships (17 ppg), 2003 Pan American Games and the 1999 and 2003 FIBA Americas Championships. Barrett helped lead Canada to a silver medal in 1993 at the World University Games

Barrett is part of an elite group of athletes in Canada’s ‘century club’, having played more than 115 games for the red and white.

“Playing for Canada was always an exhilarating experience,” said Barrett in an interview. “Listening to the national anthem while donning the red and white always filled my teammates and I with an enormous sense of pride, honour and responsibility.”

Under contract with the Toronto Raptors (1997 and 1999) and Philadelphia 76ers (1999), he never had the chance to play in any NBA regular season games.

Since retirement, the former Eurobasket guard of the year (2004), has been coaching high level basketball and is still actively involved in his sport including Assistant GM/Executive VP, Senior Men's Program for Canada Basketball.

Insight and research provided by Curtis J. Phillips

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