Rowan Alexander “RJ” Barrett Jr. was born on June 14, 2000, in Mississauga, Ontario, and grew up in the Toronto area. Basketball runs deep in his family: his father, Rowan Barrett Sr., was a longtime Canadian national team player who went on to become executive vice president and general manager of Canada’s senior men’s national program, while his mother, Kesha Duhaney, was a nationally ranked sprinter and long jumper. His godfather is NBA Hall of Famer Steve Nash, a former national-team teammate of his father’s.

Barrett is the eldest of the family’s basketball-playing children; his younger brother, Nathan Barrett, has also pursued a career in professional basketball. Growing up around Canada Basketball’s program through his father’s role gave RJ early exposure to elite training and international competition well before his teenage years.

Barrett attended Montverde Academy in Florida, where he was rated the top prospect in the 2018 high school class and won national player of the year honors. He then spent a single season at Duke University in 2018-19, averaging 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game and earning consensus All-American honors and the Jerry West Award as the nation’s top shooting guard. His college debut was especially notable: he broke Duke’s freshman scoring record with 33 points against Kentucky.

That one-and-done season cemented Barrett’s status as a top prospect in the 2019 NBA Draft, alongside Duke teammates Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish. The New York Knicks selected Barrett with the third overall pick on June 20, 2019, and he signed his rookie-scale contract with the team that July, as reported by Bleacher Report’s coverage of the signing.

Barrett spent his first four NBA seasons with the Knicks. He averaged 14.3 points as a rookie in 2019-20, improved to 17.6 points across all 72 games in 2020-21 and earned a spot on the NBA All-Star Rising Stars roster, and reached a career-high 20.0 points per game in 2021-22, including a 46-point outburst against Miami. His role shifted somewhat after Jalen Brunson arrived and took over as the Knicks’ primary ball-handler in 2022-23.

On December 30, 2023, the Knicks traded Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Toronto Raptors for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Malachi Flynn and a 2024 second-round pick, as detailed in The Washington Post’s report on the deal. The trade returned Barrett to his hometown, and he has since developed into one of the Raptors’ leading scorers, recording his first career triple-double in November 2024. In 2025-26 he posted career highs in shooting efficiency, averaging 19.3 points on 49.1 percent shooting with a 58.5 true-shooting percentage, according to reporting compiled by Hoops Rumors’ Raptors coverage. He has also represented Canada internationally, helping the national team win bronze at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

As of August 2026, Barrett remains on the Toronto Raptors roster, playing out the final guaranteed season of his contract. He has been the subject of ongoing trade speculation ahead of the 2026 draft and free-agency period, with multiple outlets reporting the Raptors have fielded inquiries from other teams, per Bleacher Report’s trade-rumor coverage. No trade had been completed as of this writing, and separate reporting has suggested Barrett would be open to a “hometown discount” on a new Raptors contract rather than testing unrestricted free agency in 2027, per Yahoo Sports. Given the fluidity of trade rumors, readers should treat his team status as current only as of the date noted above.

Barrett’s NBA salary is the dominant, and best documented, share of his annual income. Per Spotrac’s contract breakdown, his cap hit and salary were $25,794,643 in 2024-25 and $27,705,357 in 2025-26, rising to $29,616,071 for the 2026-27 season — the final guaranteed year of his current deal. That single-season figure alone places him among the higher-paid wing players in the league, even without factoring in incentive bonuses tied to All-Star or All-NBA selections that he has not yet triggered.

Beyond his NBA salary, Barrett earns undisclosed additional income from endorsement deals discussed below. Neither Barrett nor his sponsors have published exact figures for these partnerships, so estimates of his total annual income — typically cited in the low-to-mid $30 million range once salary and sponsorships are combined — should be treated as approximate rather than confirmed.

Barrett signed a four-year rookie-scale contract worth roughly $35.6 million with the Knicks in July 2019, with only the first two seasons fully guaranteed and team options for years three and four that New York exercised. He then signed a rookie-scale extension with the Knicks on September 1, 2022 — a four-year deal reported at up to $120 million with incentives and $107 million fully guaranteed, making him, at 22, the youngest player to sign a $100 million contract in franchise history, per Hoops Rumors’ report on the official announcement.

That extension began with the 2023-24 season and transferred with Barrett to Toronto in the December 2023 trade. Per Spotrac’s year-by-year cap-hit breakdown, the deal is structured as $23,883,929 (2023-24), $25,794,643 (2024-25), $27,705,357 (2025-26) and $29,616,071 (2026-27), summing to the reported $107 million guaranteed base. The incentive-driven portion that could push the deal toward $120 million total is tied to All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive selections Barrett has not yet earned, so his actual paid total is expected to land at or near the guaranteed $107 million rather than the higher incentive-laden ceiling.

No contract extension had been signed as of August 2026; Barrett is on track to become an unrestricted free agent in the 2027 offseason unless the Raptors negotiate a new deal or trade him beforehand. Documentation of both the rookie deal and the extension is available through Spotrac’s and OverTheCap-style cap-hit reporting cited above.

Barrett signed a multi-year shoe and apparel deal with Puma in August 2019, shortly after being drafted, part of Puma’s push back into basketball alongside other young NBA signees, as covered by Sports Illustrated’s report on the signing. The exact value of the Puma deal was never publicly disclosed, though reporting at the time of his recruitment noted that competing brands had offered him more than $10 million annually before he chose Puma, a figure that reflects rival offers rather than Puma’s confirmed final terms.

Barrett’s broader endorsement portfolio has included partnerships with Gatorade and the Canadian sports-nutrition brand BioSteel, along with an earlier tailored-clothing partnership with Indochino. None of these partnerships have publicly disclosed dollar values, so this profile does not attach specific figures to them beyond the rival-offer estimate noted above for the Puma deal.

Available reporting does not document any publicly confirmed business ventures, company directorships, or investment portfolio for Barrett, unlike some NBA peers who have built visible startup or venture-capital profiles. His off-court income, as far as can be verified, is limited to the endorsement partnerships described above rather than any ownership stakes or founded companies.

Following his trade to Toronto, local real-estate reporting speculated that Barrett was searching for a home in the roughly $15 million range in South Etobicoke’s Edenbridge and Humber Valley Village area, one of the city’s most expensive residential pockets, per Toronto Newswire’s report. That report reflects speculation about a potential buyer rather than a confirmed purchase in Barrett’s name, and no closing or deed record has been publicly verified.

No other property, vehicle, or major asset purchases have been independently confirmed for Barrett in available reporting. This profile does not assign a luxury-asset classification for him, since no substantiated purchase — home, car, or otherwise — is on the public record.