#31 Rick Barry
Per-game statistics: 24.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.0 steals, 0.5 blocks
Shooting splits: 45.6% from the field, 29.7% on 3-pointers, 90% on free throws
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Accolades: NBA Champion and Finals MVP (1975), ABA Champion (1969), 9-time All-League First Team selection (5xAll-NBA, 4xAll-ABA), All-NBA Second Team (1973), 12-time All-Star (4 times in the ABA, 8 times in the NBA), All-Star Game MVP (NBA, 1967)
Records: Scoring title in 1966-67 (NBA), 6-time league leader in free throw percentage
Hall of Fame forward Rick Barry is the only player ever to lead the NCAA, NBA, and ABA in scoring. His name appears near the top of every all-time offensive list. He scored more than 25,000 points in his professional career and in four different seasons averaged more than 30 points.
He was named to 12 All-Star teams, four All-NBA First Teams, and five All-ABA First Teams. Barry was a nearly unstoppable offensive juggernaut, a passionate competitor with an untempered desire to win. Occasionally his fiery competitiveness would grate on rivals - and teammates, too.
When he left the game, Barry was sixth on the NBA-ABA combined all-time scoring list with 25,279 points. Although his defense was sometimes criticized for being less-than-intense, his 1,104 career steals ranked 10th. He was a deadly free-throw shooter and used an odd underhand style called by many as the 'Granny style'. At the time of his retirement, Barry's .900 career free-throw percentage was the best in NBA history. In one season (1978-79) he missed only nine free-throw attempts.
Barry started his pro career with the San Francisco Warriors, who selected him in the first round of the 1965 NBA Draft. He scored 25.7 points per game (fourth in the league), made the All-Star Team, was named NBA Rookie of the Year and earned a berth on the All-NBA First Team.
In his second season, 1966-67, Barry went for a career-high 2,775 points in 78 appearances, leading the league in scoring with an average of 35.6 points. On Dec. 6, 1966 against the New York Knicks, Barry set what was then an NBA record for most free throws made in one quarter when he made 14.
He made the second appearance of his eight NBA All-Star selections and won the game's MVP Award in 1967 after pouring in 38 points. At the end of the season, Barry earned a second consecutive selection to the All-NBA First Team.
The Warriors won the Western Division that year and took Chamberlain's great Philadelphia 76ers team to six games in the NBA Finals before losing. Barry matched Chamberlain's playoff record set five-years earlier by launching 48 shots in Game 3. He made 22 of them, to share the all-time Finals record with Baylor.
His 55 points in the game are the second-highest total in NBA Finals history, tied later by Jordan in 1993 and trailing only Baylor's 61 for the Lakers in 1962. Barry also scored 43 and 44 points in two other games of the series. His 40.8 scoring average for the series was an NBA Finals record until Jordan scored 41.0 per game in the 1993 championship series.
After two seasons in San Francisco, which produced a league scoring title and two All-NBA First Team selections, Barry signed with the Oakland Oaks of the ABA. A court dispute over his obligation to the Warriors sidelined Barry for the entire 1967-68 season, but he did join the Oaks for the 1968-69 campaign.
The ensuing public fuss did not reflect well on Barry. His league-jumping was perceived by fans as being driven by greed, even though other players were also taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the ABA.
Barry made an immediate impact on the fledgling league, leading the Oaks to the ABA Championship in 1969 and finishing second to Indiana's Mel Daniels for the ABA Most Valuable Player Award. Although a knee injury limited him to 35 games, Barry averaged 34.0 points to become the first player to win scoring titles in both leagues. At season's end, Oaks head coach Hannum was named ABA Coach of the Year.
After spending a season with the newly-moved-to-Washington Capitols (the Oaks had been sold in the summer of 1969 to owners based there), Barry moved to the New Jersey Nets, where he compiled two more spectacular individual seasons.
Barry's four seasons in the ABA produced four All-Star selections, a championship, and an ABA scoring title. But his seven seasons in professional basketball had landed him in two leagues -- with three different teams in four different cities -- and in court twice. "If I had to do it over again," Barry said, "I'd wait for some other fool to do it."
Just as he'd grown comfortable with the Nets of the ABA, a court decision forced Barry to return to the NBA's Golden State Warriors for the 1972-73 season. Upon his return to the NBA, he was a different, better player. For one thing, he had bulked up by about 20 pounds so that he could muscle with the NBA's big boys when he had to. He also had developed other skills beyond scoring - becoming an elite passer, playmaker and defender.
After his return to the NBA, Barry experienced the longest period of stability in his career. He played six more seasons with the Warriors, and they made the playoffs four times. In 1972-73, he averaged 22.3 points per game. He also earned the first of six NBA free-throw percentage titles. A perennial All-Star, he began a string of six more midseason appearances and was named to three consecutive All-NBA First Teams.
Barry boosted his scoring average to 25.1 points per game in 1973-74. He had his greatest scoring night on March 26, 1974, against the Portland Trail Blazers. In the first half, he was merely hot, with 19 points. In the second half, however, he lit the Blazers up, hitting 21 field goals for 45 points. Barry's 64-point total was his career high and made him, at the time, only the third player to go over 63 (Chamberlain had done it 15 times, Baylor twice), although three other players would reach the same level over the next two decades.
Barry had a career year in 1974-75. He led the Warriors to the NBA title, averaged 30.6 points (second to the Buffalo Braves' Bob McAdoo), and led the league in free-throw percentage (.904) and steals (2.85 per game). He also ranked sixth in the NBA in assists with 6.2 per game, the only forward to make the top 10.
Golden State's 1974-75 roster included NBA Rookie of the Year Keith Wilkes (known later as Jamaal Wilkes), a smooth, unselfish, sure-handed small forward. The rest of the squad was a collection of hardworking but unspectacular role players. Barry led the team to a 48-34 regular-season record.
Coach Al Attles used a 10-man rotation and pressure defense to keep opponents off balance. The Warriors led the league in scoring, with 108.5 points per game. Barry led the squad in scoring, and Wilkes was No. 2 with 14.2 points per game. Nine players logged more than 1,000 minutes and eight averaged better than 7.6 points.
In the 1975 NBA Finals, the Warriors astonished the basketball world by sweeping Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes' Washington Bullets in four games. Because nobody had expected the Warriors to go so deep into the playoffs, the arena in Oakland had been booked for another event. The championship games were moved to the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
Barry, who averaged 29.5 ppg in The Finals, was named NBA Finals MVP and began to attract increasing admiration for his play. But Barry was a perfectionist, and an outspoken one at that. He played the game with a look of mild (and sometimes not-so-mild) uppity that suggested his surroundings were beneath him. He never tempered his tongue or controlled his takes. Consequently, he was not a popular figure and missed out on MVP honours on at least 2 different occasions in his career.
The next season, 1975-76, the Warriors won 59 games and topped the league. But they fell to the Phoenix Suns in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. With the Warriors' young players developing both skills and confidence, Barry shouldered less of the scoring burden. He averaged 21.0 points while distributing 496 assists.
In 1976-77, Barry averaged 21.8 points, as the Warriors fell off to 46-36 and lost in the conference semifinals. The next season he averaged 23.1 points, a single tick below his career average of 23.2. Golden State, despite a winning record, finished out of the playoffs in the resurgent Pacific Division.
Barry retired after the 1979-80 season, spending his last two pro seasons with the Houston Rockets in a reduced role alongside Moses Malone. In 14 seasons of professional basketball (10 in the NBA), he had played in more than 1,000 games. He never missed more than four NBA games in a row until his final year. He averaged 23.2 points in the NBA and 30.5 points in his four ABA seasons.
In the playoffs he was even more prolific, scoring 24.8 points per game in his NBA postseason career and 33.5 points per game in the ABA. At the time of his retirement, Barry was the most accurate free-throw shooter in NBA history, having hit 90.0 percent of his free-throw attempts - he's currently 4th behind Mark Price, Steve Nash and Stephen Curry.
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