Few players in the NBA, and certainly no one else in the Nuggets’ locker room, are as authentic as Will Barton.
At any moment, Barton can be insightful or brief, sarcastic or genuine, funny or serious. He’s always honest, usually the pulse of the locker room, and not once have I seen him big time anybody.
Yet after Barton shared on social media about the death of his cousin — Louis Grant, 26, was shot and killed the day after Christmas in Baltimore, Barton’s hometown — I still wanted to ask him if he was comfortable discussing their relationship.
And in the hushed corner of a visiting locker room, Barton shared what Grant meant to him.
“We were real close, almost like brothers,” Barton said. “He actually came on a lot of the road trips. Come visit me and hang with me. Someone I grew up with. I got pictures of us taking baths together, me, him and my brother, since we were like six, five years old. We lived together before. We just had a special bond.”
With an off day before playing in Washington, Barton planned to attend a candlelight vigil for Grant on Friday night in Baltimore. Grant’s funeral is on Jan. 8. Barton will be there, too, just as Grant was there for him.
“He loved me, he was like my No. 1 fan,” Barton said. “He loved to see me hooping and ball out.”
Since Grant died, Barton said he’s confided in Monte Morris and Gary Harris, two friends who knew his cousin well.
“Great energy, he always had that swag on him,” Morris said. “… (Grant) would talk to you but he wasn’t really joking like that. Everything he said was like real, stuff like that.”
Barton said his cousin’s charisma was infectious.
“He just had the best energy ever, man,” Barton said. “He always was on 10. Always keeping everybody laughing and smiling. He was always in a good mood. He was one of those guys.”
Morris recounted a story about Grant from the summer of 2018 with vivid detail. He, Grant and Barton were hanging out at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. Barton was getting his haircut, and Morris was getting ready for his second Summer League, the one that would ultimately land him a contract. Morris remembered how Grant hyped him up before taking the court.
“He’s just always, ‘I’m gonna be at the game tomorrow, man, turn this up,’” Morris said with a laugh. “He always was a big supporter of me, just saying he liked my game and stuff like that. Every time I saw him, it was always love and respect. I actually knew him.”
Rather than compartmentalize like some professional athletes, Barton is still trying to strike the right balance between honoring his cousin and staying focused on the game.
“Definitely can’t neglect it, I’ll never neglect it, he was too close to me,” Barton said. “I just try to find a balance between both, trying to go out there and play hard for him and represent him. … And at the same time, try to block it out and not try to be too emotional because you can’t be too emotional in this game.”
Morris has given his friend delicate advice as he tries to cope.
“Try to remember everything y’all used to do together and not just the negative that happened,” Morris said. “Just how many lives he touched. I just try to talk to him about other stuff, try to get his mind off of it and just tell him, ‘When you get on the court, just have fun with it. And play for him every time you go out there.’ That’s all you can do.”
