From Ames to Austin, Harrison Barnes Continues Spurs' Tradition of Giving Back

Since joining the Golden State Warriors as a rookie, Barnes has made his rounds with the Boys & Girls Club. From 2014 to 2024, the forward served on the board of trustees for the Club in Oakland.

Once he and his wife, Brittany, got married in the summer following Barnes' first season with the Mavericks, the pair began donating to Clubs in Oakland, Dallas and Sacramento through their community fund.

Despite being only one season into his tenure with the Spurs, Barnes added both San Antonio and Austin to that list. To him, continuing a long-standing Spurs tradition was of utmost importance.

"The Spurs are synonymous with their community," Barnes said, "whether it's Austin or San Antonio. Continuing that tradition of being a Spurs player and giving back is important to me."

The City of Ames once celebrated "Harrison Barnes Day."

July 13, 2015 came just under a month after Barnes won his only NBA championship with the Warriors and nine days after he played the role of Grand Marshall for his hometown's Fourth of July Parade.

But Barnes did plenty more than win to deserve the honor.

Barnes first left Ames in 2010 bound for Chapel Hill, N.C. as a top recruit for then-North Carolina coach Roy Williams' Tar Heels. The forward was a two-time state champion and the centerpiece of Ames High School's Little Cyclones along with eventual Spur Doug McDermott.

Back then, visits from Fred Hoiberg were a big deal. Barnes still recalls the moment he first met the Iowa State Cyclones legend, coincidentally at the Story County Boys & Girls Club.

"It's kind of funny how that all came full circle," he said.

Barnes made it through the ranks at North Carolina before becoming a top-10 selection for the Warriors. Behind Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, Golden State made the playoffs in each of the four seasons he was there and went on to face LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers in The Finals twice.

It paid off the first time; Barnes and the Warriors fell short of a repeat championship in 2016. Still, Ames remained at Barnes' core. It was where he first picked up basketball.

"That was my first indoor court," he said. "It was a safe space."

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Ten years after he left the 65,000-person town, Barnes helped finance a new high school gym for the Little Cyclones, complete with new jerseys. He led the team to a 56-game win streak in his latter two seasons, marking the first 4-A program in the state to go undefeated in consecutive seasons, and surpassed Hoiberg on the team's all-time points list.

Barnes also made the All-State First Team, earned the Gatorade Player of the Year Honor in 2009-10 and was named Mr. Basketball in Iowa.

Fittingly, Ames High School now features the Harrison Barnes Gymnasium and Court, where Barnes regularly hosts basketball camps. At times, he'll see kids from the local Boys & Girls Club. Those are his favorite.

"I’m a living example of the happiness and success that our young people can achieve when they’re supported and cared for," Barnes said. "I wouldn't be here, not only without the Boys & Girls Club, but without all the people that helped me and poured into me."

"When you see the success of someone like Harrison, for the kids, it's: 'I can do that, too,'" Austin Area Boys & Girls Club CEO Zenae Campbell added. "At the club, we're able to nurture that ... that's what we want to instill."

Harrison Barnes wasn't granted a chance to speak on the side of the NBA he's become acclimated to several times throughout his career.

With his Spurs inching toward contention, several big-name NBA stars have expressed, even preliminarily, some level of interest in joining Victor Wembanyama in San Antonio. Barnes' sizable contract puts him on the short list of players to be re-routed.

That was the least of his concerns Wednesday morning.

"Basketball has taken me all over the world," Barnes said, conversely. "It's allowed me to live my childhood dreams ... (and) to have people to help me get there? That's what my wife and I aim to do. We want to give back."

Barnes launched a refurbishment initiative with the Spurs upon being traded to the team in the deal that landed DeMar DeRozan in Sacramento. He started in San Antonio, refurbishing a court at the Guadalupe Community Center in March, before doing the same in Austin with a plan to round out the process later this month at Plaza Mirasierra Spurs in Saltillo, Mexico.

His time spent in Austin was a continuation of the Spurs' ongoing pursuit of a market expansion to the Texas capital, headlined by an annual pair of games at The University of Texas' Moody Center.

"There's a lot of teams that claim to want to meet the fans where they are," Spurs SVP of Strategic Growth Brandon James said. "We are sort of a living testimony of truly doing that."

With the Coyote in attendance, Barnes brought the Spurs to Austin. He noticed no difference in support between the parent city and its secondary home.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to play for great franchises and programs in college," Barnes began, "but the Spurs’ fan base is different. It’s predicated on the history and culture of the team on the court, but also off the court.”

As unique as the fan base is, the Spurs feel similarly toward Barnes.

"I've never seen anybody like him," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of the veteran. "We talk a lot about him being a mentor and a vet ... (but we need to talk about) how he carries himself off the court and the way he's impacted this community and city in such a short time."

That goes for San Antonio and Austin.

"Harrison," Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said. "You ... since you came into our program, have been such a model for what a great teammate, a great community leader, a great hero (looks like)."

A photo of Barnes waiting for Hoiberg's autograph still exists at the Story County Boys & Girls Club. Barnes is wearing an old jersey, excited to meet a man he saw as a living legend. In front of several young Spurs fans Wednesday, he became that legend.

Perhaps now Austin's "Home Club" has something for its walls, too.

"You can see what the club means to him," Campbell said. "It's still so real and so important to his upbringing. To have an opportunity to do something he loves, and for that to come to fruition is amazing."