WATCH: Knicks' RJ Barrett Talks Bronze Medal Run During Blue Jays Game

New York Knicks star RJ Barrett took to Toronto airwaves to discuss his recent bronze medal run with Team Canada at the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

New York Knicks star RJ Barrett donned a new shade of blue on Thursday night, returning to his native Ontario to take in the Toronto Blue Jays' MLB tilt against the Texas Rangers. 

It marked a victorious return up north for Barrett, who recently partook in Canada's first-ever podium finish at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, placing third after topping a United States group featuring Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.

Barrett talked about the run in Asia with Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman, who were calling the game for Sportsnet. While Barrett is expected to take on a larger role for the Knicks this season, the conversation understandably centered upon the most lucrative international tournament appearance in Canadian basketball history, one that clinched a spot in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

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"I think when you play for your college in the pros, you're playing for a team, but a lot of it is you're playing for yourself and for your own career and for your family," Barrett said when asked about the difference between international and NBA affairs. "When you play for your country, like it's so much bigger than you. You're not thinking about yourself at all, (you're) just thinking about this great nation that you came from that really raised you. So, like I said, we did it for them."

Barrett, adorning the bronze medal he won in Asia, was one of several NBA stars called upon by his father, general manager Rowan, to get Canada back on the international hardwood stage: prior to the arrivals of Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and more, Canada's men's team had not appeared at the Olympics since Rowan's group did so in 2000. 

The younger Barrett played a major role in securing Canada's next attempt at the gold: in the three-game knockout round, Barrett averaged 23.3 points and 6.3 rebounds, capping things off with the dagger three-pointer in the third-place game on Sunday, a 125-117 overtime win over Team USA.

"It was so, so much fun to be a part of that, just to go out there with a group of guys (where) everybody just wanted to win," Barrett said, also praising the True North fans for their own dedication to games tipping off in local wee hours. "People (were) telling us that they were waking up at four o'clock in the morning to watch us play. That was amazing."

Taking in a Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre is perhaps a late beginning to Barrett's offseason, but he won't have much time to rest. The Knicks open training camp soon and Barrett is set to embark upon the first year of a nine-figure extension inked last summer.

Even though Toronto could perhaps use his help ... the Blue Jays fell to Texas by a 9-2 final and currently sit 1.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners for the final American League playoff spot ... Barrett will keep his talents on the hardwood rather than the diamond, even though he admitted to Martinez and Shulman that he dabbled in baseball as a Canadian youth.

"I did do a little bit of baseball when I was younger, It was fun," Barrett said. "I was actually kind of good, but I just liked basketball better."

The Knicks' expensive commitment to Barrett seems to hint that they believe that he made the right choice.