Scottie Barnes grew up “kinda hard” in West Palm Beach, Fla.; his family didn’t have an awful lot.
But he also grew up happy and inquisitive and athletically gifted and now can be a beacon, perhaps, for kids in the same circumstances in his Central Florida home area.
“You didn’t really have super much, you wasn’t really able to get the recognition,” Barnes, the Raptors’ top pick in the NBA draft, said Friday morning. “But I would say it was a good place for me because it just helped me stay humble, just be a happy guy.