Scottie Barnes sees Cade Cunningham as ‘a brother’

Toronto Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes addressed the media after Friday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons. He discussed what it’s like to play against Cade Cunningham, and how both of them are living out their dreams. He also touched on how his sore knee is feeling.

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Video Transcript

- Hey, Scottie. I'm just wondering, what's it like just competing out there with Cade-- or against Cade, rather-- just seeing the journey that you guys have gone on together?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I would say it's a blessing for both of us to be out there on the court together. Just really living out our dreams of what we've been grinding for so long to do. So playing against him-- he's my brother, you know? But we're also great competitors, and we really just want to compete out there.

- And what's it like-- people always want to talk about, whether it's rookie of the year or revisiting the draft rankings, what's it like seeing your names both always coming up in comparison against each other?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I don't really pay attention to it. I'm sure he probably doesn't really pay attention to it either. But at the end of the day, we're just competitors. When we step on the floor, we're just going to really try to win against each other. And off the court, we're still going to have that friendship that we always have. So I don't think-- none of us really look at that stuff, and it doesn't really go into effect into our relationship.

- All right. Thanks, Scottie.

SCOTTIE BARNES: Thank you.

- Thanks, Adam. Next we'll go to Doug.

- Hey, Scottie. Thanks for stopping by. Nick was saying a couple of minutes ago that he thinks you're coming back from COVID, and the knee has kind of set you back a little bit physically. Is it hard to get back up to speed really quickly having both those issues?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I would probably just say-- probably coming off the COVID at break, it just made my knee hurt a little bit. But I want to say I felt better now. But of course, just coming back, I couldn't really run as well, jump as well. Do certain things as well as I could. But it's just-- it's getting better right now. That's all I can say about it.

- I guess it's just something you've got to work through at game speed. You don't have a lot of practice time or gym time, you've got to get it done at full NBA speed.

SCOTTIE BARNES: It's just really just how I feel, really. I would say I'm up to the speed. I'm up to physicality and things like that. It's just me just getting back into it. Just being able to trust my body, trust how it's feeling, really.

- Great, thanks. Appreciate it as always, Scottie.

SCOTTIE BARNES: Thank you.

- Next we'll go to Vivek.

- Hey, Scottie. I was actually just wondering if that soreness that you've had in your knee, if that's something you've experienced before this season.

SCOTTIE BARNES: No, I didn't really have no knee tendinitis, really. It wasn't really nothing that I had all season. It was just coming back from the break and really just getting right into things. That really just hurt me a little bit, set me back a little bit.