TORONTO — Humber Polytechnic and Canada Basketball have a relationship that stretches back decades. 

When Canada Basketball vice president and executive director Rowan Barrett first tried out for the national team, he took the bus to the school’s north campus. 

His son, Toronto Raptors forward and senior men’s team star RJ Barrett, played his first game as an age-group national team player at Humber and trained for his first international competition on the same floor his father had played on decades earlier. 

“The first time I saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander play was at that hoop, he was a skinny 15-year-old, and Dillon Brooks too,” the elder Barrett said Wednesday, referring to two-time NBA MVP with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks. 

If everything unfolds as intended, generations of Canadian basketball stars will be developing their skills on campus for decades to come.

On Wednesday, in the same gym that so many national team players have trained dating back to the early 1990s, the federal government announced a $76........

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