The time Scottie Barnes helped a random person who fell

Amit Mann is joined by Seerat Sohi of The Ringer to discuss her piece on Scottie Barnes and tell a story of the sophomore forward going to great lengths to replace a drink for a person who tripped. Listen to the full episode on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed or watch on our YouTube channel.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Was he that close to Oprah's mansion? Really?

SEERAT SOHI: Apparently, yes. I mean, you're referencing the hike that they went on--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

SEERAT SOHI: --pre-draft. Yeah, she's got these mansions in Montecito. And he was doing his pre-draft training with P3, Peak Performance Lab. And yeah, they went on a hike. The lab is in Santa Barbara, which is right in those mountains, so yeah.

AMIT MANN: No kidding.

SEERAT SOHI: It was right there, yeah.

AMIT MANN: Sure she has, like, 10 of them. You also mentioned, in the piece, a story where a woman fell. And Scottie was like, oh, my goodness, let me go and help you. What was behind that? Who told you that, actually? Was it Scottie?

SEERAT SOHI: No, it was a P3 guy, Jon Flake. He was basically, like, Scottie's trainer and the trainer of, like, all the 2021 draft class. I think, like, there were a bunch of guys from BDA that went. They always send their guys down there. Scottie's a BDA guy.

And yeah, so it was a bunch of those guys that did their pre-draft preparation there. And yeah, Jon Flake was kind of the head trainer for that. I'm probably getting the actual title wrong. But he was working with them, and he took them on this hike.

And then afterwards, they went out for smoothies and everything. And yeah, she just saw this woman fall. And, like, classic Scottie Barnes fashion, was just like, how can I help? And he was just running around this strip mall, essentially, trying to figure out how to help this woman.

AMIT MANN: Scottie to the rescue. There are some people that think Scottie's personality is a little bit contrived, it's a little bit fake. And his outbursts and his reactions sometimes, especially with teammates when they do something good or he does-- at times, it's over-the-top. And some people feel that it's fake or that he's just doing it for show.

But I think reading your piece, I think you found out otherwise, that this is who he's been for a long time.

SEERAT SOHI: Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's always been this way. I think if you talk to anybody around him, like, he's a big hugger. He just loves people. He's somebody who gets a lot of energy from people.

I don't think that's contrived, actually, especially if you-- like, if you look at how he behaved earlier in the season, just his frustration at referees, his frustration even at teammates, right? Like, if he didn't get the ball or they didn't make the pass that he wanted them to make, or if, like, they didn't take a specific shot, he'd have his arms up in the air, and his mouth, like, completely wide open, right?

So I don't think there's anything contrived about it. I think he just can't help but express how he's actually feeling in a particular moment, right? And yeah, I think it's an interesting thing.

I think when people-- I used to feel like this about overly optimistic people. Like, when I was younger, like, there were a couple of people in my life that were always just really happy all the time, really optimistic.

AMIT MANN: Glass half full at all times.

SEERAT SOHI: Yeah, always just, like, so grateful for everything. And I would kind of just be like, [GROANS] come on. Like, can you get a load of this guy?