Top 100 NBA Players: #32 - Rick Barry

Rick Barry

Rick Barry is today most remembered for his unique style of free throw shooting, but he was one of the best players in the NBA for many years, and if he hadn't jumped to the ABA for five years, he could have been one of the 10 best players in NBA history.

Barry started out his career with the San Francisco Warriors, where he won the Rookie of the Year award after averaging 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game at only 21 years of age. The next season he was even better, putting up one of the best seasons in history for a non-MVP. Here are his stats from that year, along with those of Wilt Chamberlain, who was the MVP that season:

Barry - 35.6 pts, 9.2 reb, 3.6 ast, .451 FG%, .884 FT%
Chamberlain - 24.1 pts, 24.2 reb, 7.8 ast, .683 FG%, .441 FT%

You can see that Wilt was the better player that season and deserved the MVP, since he led the league in rebounding, minutes played, and field goal percentage, while Barry only led the league in scoring. The two players led their respective teams to the Finals, where Wilt and the 76ers beat Barry and the Warriors in six games, proving that the MVP was awarded properly.

After that season, Barry had a disagreement with the Warriors over incentive bonuses, so he left to sign a contract with the Oakland Oaks of the ABA. Barry was not allowed to play the next season because of a clause in his Warriors contract, but when he made it to the league he was pretty good, although not as good as in his NBA days. After four seasons, a judge ruled that Barry's original contract with San Francisco was still binding, and that he could not play for anyone else, so he went back to the Golden State Warriors, who had changed their name in his absence.

He had an immediate impact upon his return, leading Golden State to the Western Conference Finals and leading the league in free throw percentage, but he was still building up to his second career peak in 1975, when he started to look like the Barry of old at age 30, once again establishing himself as the #2 player in the league, although this time he ranked behind Bob McAdoo, who rightfully won the MVP. Here are their stats from that year:

Barry - 30.6 pts, 5.7 reb, 6.2 ast, 2.9 stl, .464 FG%, .904 FT%
McAdoo - 34.5 pts, 14.1 reb, 2.2 ast, 2.1 blk, .512 FG%, .805 FT%

Barry was the league leader in steals and free throw percentage, while McAdoo led in scoring, but McAdoo's awesome rebounding average and field goal percentage were the big reason he was a better player that year, and it helped that he was 7 years younger. Barry had the last laugh in the playoffs, however, as McAdoo's Braves lost in the first round, while Barry and the Warriors swept the highly-favored Bullets in the Finals for the franchise's third championship and first in California.

Barry was named the MVP of the Finals, and although he wasn't as good as in the regular season, there was no other choice for this award. The second best player on that team was probably Jamaal Wilkes, who was a rookie, and here is a comparison of their playoff stats from 1975:

Barry - 28.2 pts, 5.5 reb, 6.1 ast, 2.9 stl, .444 FG%, .918 FT%
Wilkes - 15.0 pts, 7.0 reb, 1.6 ast, 1.5 stl, .446 FG%, .702 FT%

There was definitely no disputing why the Warriors won the title. This was one of the few teams to ever win a title without two verifiable star players, so that title has a lot of weight in Barry's placement among the all-time greats. By giving up 5 years during what should have been the prime of his career, he hurt his standing greatly, but he was still one of the best of all time with just ten seasons on the court.