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Rick Barry

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Richard (Rick) Francis Dennis Barry III (born March 28 1944, in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is a retired American professional basketball player.

Barry was an All-Star forward for the Golden State (formerly San Francisco) Warriors and for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and for the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1965-1980.

Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in history by the NBA in 1996, Barry is the only player to lead the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), ABA and NBA in scoring for an individual season.

Against all odds

Barry ranks on the short list of greatest underdog players in basketball history, as his teams repeatedly overachieved despite marginal talent around him. Longtime NBA writer Paul Ladewski has referred to him as Ricky Balboa, a reference to Rocky Balboa, the prize fighter of motion picture fame who was at his best in the face of long odds.

In Barry's first season in the NBA, playing for the San Francisco Warriors, the team improved from 17 to 35 victories. In the All-Star Game one season later, Barry erupted for 38 points as the West team stunned the East squad, which featured Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell and head coach Red Auerbach among other all-time greats. Later that season, Barry and company extended the mighty Philadelphia 76ers to six highly competitive games in the NBA Finals, something that Russell and the Boston Celtics could not do in the Eastern Conference playoffs. That 76ers team is considered to be one of the greatest in basketball history. In 1972, on the heels of a rather ordinary 44-win regular season, Barry and the New York Nets ousted the deeper, more talented Kentucky Colonels and Virginia Squires in the ABA playoffs before they fell to the Indiana Pacers in six games in the final round.

Shortly upon his return to the NBA, Barry was never better in a leadership role than in the 1974-1975 campaign. In the Western Conference finals, with Barry as team captain, the young Warriors no-names overcame a 3-2 deficit against a veteran-laden Chicago Bulls squad. Then he led them to a dramatic four-game sweep of Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld and the Washington Bullets in the NBA Finals. The epic series remains arguably the greatest upset in professional basketball history, as the Bullets had posted a league-high 60 victories, 12 more than the Warriors total in the regular season.

College career

Barry attended the University of Miami, where he starred for three seasons. It was there that Barry met Pam Hale, the daughter of Hurricanes head coach Bruce Hale whom he later married. As a senior in the 1964-65 campaign, Barry led the NCAA with a 37.4 points-per-game average. Barry and the Hurricanes did not take part in the NCAA Tournament, however, because the basketball program was on probation at the time. An initiated member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, Epsilon-Beta Chapter, Barry is one of just two basketball players (along with Tim James) to have his number retired by the school.

Professional career

Nicknamed the "Miami Greyhound" by longtime San Francisco-area broadcaster Bill King because of his slender physical build and remarkable quickness and instincts, the 6'7" Barry won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after averaging 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in the 1965-66 season. The following year, he won the NBA All-Star Game MVP award with a 38-point outburst and led the NBA in scoring with a 35.6 point per game average — which still ranks as the eighth- highest output in league annals. Teamed with star center Nate Thurmond in San Francisco, Barry helped take the Warriors to the 1967 NBA Finals, which they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in six games. Including a 55-point outburst in Game 3, Barry averaged 40.8 points per game in the series, an NBA Finals record that stood for three decades.

Upset that he was not paid incentive monies that he believed due from Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, Barry jumped to the ABA's Oakland Oaks, who offered him a lucrative contract and the chance to play for Bruce Hale, then his father-in-law. The courts ordered Barry to sit out the 1967-68 campaign before he starred in the ABA, twice averaging more than 30 points per game. With Barry as the first dominant force and marquee name in the fledging league, the eventual champion Oaks began the 1968-69 season with a remarkable 31-4 record before a knee injury cut short his debut.

The ensuing negative publicity cast Barry in a negative light, portraying him as selfish and money-hungry. This was unfair, as many NBA players at the time were looking at jumping to the ABA for more lucrative contracts.

The Oaks were sold and moved to Washington, D.C. for the 1969-1970 season, where they were renamed the Washington Caps. Barry did not like the move and refused to report to the team, at one point commenting, "If I wanted to go to Washington, I'd run for President!" He missed the first 32 games before the ABA forced him to join the team. After one season in the nation's capital, the team moved to Norfolk, Virginia for the 1970-1971 season and became the Virginia Squires.

Known for his intense, demonstrative personality, the outspoken Barry was no stranger to controversy in the new league. Featured on the August 24, 1970 cover of Sports Illustrated in a Squires jersey, he indicated that he would not return to the NBA if the league paid him "a million dollars a year." He also denounced the Squires, saying he did not want his kids growing up with a southern accent. On September 1, 1970, the Squires traded Barry to the New York Nets for a draft pick and $200,000. The negative comments weren't the primary reason; rather, Squires owner Earl Foreman was still bogged down by financial troubles and sold Barry to help meet his expenses. Rick Barry returned to the Warriors in 1972 after the NBA found a loophole in his original contract, forcing his hand.

As the cumulative effects of knee problems began to take their tolls, Barry gradually moved his game away from the basket with similar results. After Thurmond was traded to the Chicago Bulls in return for center Clifford Ray prior to the 1974-75 campaign, Barry and the Warriors experienced a truly remarkable season. Considered to be no better than the third- or fourth-best team in the Pacific Division prior to the regular season, the Barry-led Warriors captured the division crown. Even though Barry averaged 30.6 points per game, led the league in free throw percentage (.904) and steals per game (2.9) and ranked sixth in assists per game (6.2), he was somewhat overlooked in the Most Valuable Player vote. The snub only fanned the intense competitive fire in Barry, who promptly led his team to playoff series victories against the Seattle SuperSonics and the Bulls, the latter in a tense seven-game duel. In his finest hour, Barry and the Warriors shocked the basketball world in a four-game sweep of the favored Washington Bullets in the championship series. He was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.

Barry was traded to the Houston Rockets in return for John Lucas. Now in the twilight of his career, he pioneered the "point forward" position as a ball distributor and three-point threat. He averaged 13.5 points and set a new NBA record (since broken) with a .947 free throw percentage for the season. He retired in 1980.

During the 1990s he coached the Cedar Rapids Sharpshooters of the Global Basketball Association[1] and the Continental Basketball Association, guiding the Fort Wayne Fury to a 19-37 win-loss record in 1993-94.

Broadcasting career

Unusually articulate, insightful and straight-forward for his time, Barry was among the first professional basketball players to make a successful transition to the broadcasting profession. He continues to work in the field, a career that began with his own radio show in San Francisco and CBS while still an active player and then with TBS.

During Game 5 of the 1981 NBA Finals, while working as a CBS analyst, Barry made a controversial comment when CBS posted an old photo of colleague Bill Russell's on the 1956 Olympic team: "Who’s the guy in the back row with the big watermelon smile?"[2][3]

The nature of this comment was made all the more awkward when the cameras switched to a shot of the announcers seated courtside where Barry was smiling yet Russell remained sullen and silent. Barry's comments were considered to be racially insensitive (Russell is African American) and CBS did not renew Barry for the subsequent season.

As an announcer for TBS, Barry helped call the 1987 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. During that contest, he called one of Michael Jordan's dunks a "Chinese Superman". When asked what that meant, he replied, "It's because it had a slant to it." Barry was not disciplined for his remarks.[citation needed]

Despite these incidents, Barry has continued broadcasting, evidence that his knowledge of the game and insightful color commentary apparently outweighs fears that his occasional slip of the tongue might be considered offensive by some viewers. Currently, he co-hosts a basketball-related show on Sirius satellite radio.

From 2001 until August 2006, Barry co-hosted with Rod Brooks a sports talk show broadcast on KNBR-AM in San Francisco, California.

Barry recently finished 2nd in his division at the 2005 World Long Drive Championship.[4]

Career achievements

  • All-NBA First Team (1966, 1967, 1974, 1975, 1976)
  • Eight time NBA All-Star (1966, 1967, 1973-78)
  • ABA All-Star First Team (1969-72)
  • NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)

Personal life

Rick Barry has four sons, Scooter, Drew, Jon, Brent, all of whom are or have been professional basketball players. He also has a son named Canyon from his second marriage.

With his son Brent winning the NBA Championship in 2005 and 2007 with the San Antonio Spurs, Rick and Brent have become only the second father-son duo to both win NBA Championships as players; the first was Matt Guokas, Sr. and his son, Matt Guokas, Jr.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Barry to Coach" (AP). The New York Times. October 30, 1992. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Cook, Bob (2004). "Kick Out the Sports!". Flak Magazine. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Thornton, Jerry (September 21, 2005). "Sportscasters Gone Wild". Barstool Sports. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "RE/MAX World Championship's 2005". Morgan Studios.
Preceded by NBA Rookie of the Year
1966 		Succeeded by
Preceded by NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player
1967 		Succeeded by
Preceded by NBA Finals Most Valuable Player
1975 		Succeeded by

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