WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Canyon Barry, the youngest child of Basketball Hall of Fame player Rick Barry, is realizing an Olympic dream.
The 6-foot-6 former Florida Gators guard and boyfriend of WPTV First Alert Weather meteorologist Frances Peyton learned last month that he's headed to Paris as a member of the 2024 USA Basketball 3x3 men's national team.
WPTV's Todd Wilson recently sat down to speak with Canyon Barry about his journey and the Olympics.
A basketball life
"What does basketball mean to you?" Wilson asked Barry.
"I think, for me, basketball is almost a way of life," Barry answered.
From an early age, Barry has lived the game of basketball. He's part of basketball royalty, the son of NBA legend Rick Barry and mother Lynn Barry – not only a standout player collegiately but also a trailblazer, helping to launch the WNBA and spending years working with USA Basketball.
Add in five brothers who played professionally and it's easy to understand why Barry says basketball is a way of life.
"I feel so blessed to have had such an instrumental basketball family to be able to prepare me for kind of everything that I went through," Barry said. "…I was just Canyon. You know, I grew up under my dad. My dad wasn't Rick Barry, NBA Hall of Famer, he was just dad. So, I think my parents did a great job of, I don't want to say sheltering me from that pressure, but really letting me become my own person."
3x3 basketball
Basketball has taken Barry around the globe, all of it preparing him for the greatest adventure to date – 3x3 Olympic basketball.
"I knew it was going one of two ways, "Barry said when reflecting on the moment he received the call. "It was the call to say, 'Hey, congratulations,' or it was the call to say, you know, 'We're so sorry. We've selected a different team.' But I was lucky that it was the positive side of that coin."
During his time as a member of the USA Basketball 3x3 men's national team, he's won a gold medal at the World Cup in Amsterdam in 2019, a silver medal at the World Cup in Vienna in 2023 and another gold medal – this time at the Pan American Games in Chile last year.
Barry thinks he's found a fit in the 3x3 game, which is different than a traditional 5-on-5 matchup.
"In 3-on-3 there's only three people on the court, so you have to have a much more balanced game," he said. "There's really nowhere to hide, so you have to be able to pass, cut, rebound, defend, move without the ball, have a high IQ, shoot. Where it's really, I like to call it, a purist game of basketball because you have to be adept at each skill set."
Learning from an Olympian
Barry tried to teach Todd Wilson his underhanded free-throw technique, a callback to his Hall of Fame father.
It didn't go well in the beginning, but thanks to Barry's coaching, Wilson eventually got around to making one.
What's next?
Now that Barry has made the team, his preparation for the Olympics hits another gear.
Just one day after the interview, Barry headed to Arizona for a basketball camp.
"We'll have a lot of training camps, a lot of weightlifting, a lot of practices," Barry said. "We have three or four international events that we're kind of scripting like the Olympics so we can use that as kind of build-up events."
Then it's on to Paris.
"What would you consider success at the Olympics?" Wilson asked.
"You know, that's a good question," Barry said. "I think anytime you wear the red, white and blue, there is an expectation of gold or bust. But I'm a firm believer in as long as you have given your best effort up through the preparation, up to the games, that is what success is."
Training as an Olympic athlete is a full-time job, but Barry already has one. He's also an engineer.