Rick Barry
Teams
San Francisco/Golden State Warriors - 1965-67, 1972-78
Oakland Oaks/Washington Caps (ABA) - 1968-70
New York Nets (ABA) - 1970-72
Houston Rockets - 1978-80
Playoffs
Appearances - 10 (1967,1970,1971,1972,1973,1975,1976,1977,1979,1980)
Conference Finals - 5 (1967,1972,1973,1975,1976)
ABA/NBA Finals - 3 (1967,1972,1975)
Championships - 1 (1975)
Awards and Honors
Rookie of the Year - 1966
Finals MVP - 1 (1975)
All-ABA/NBA First Team - 9 (1966,1967,1969,1970,1971,1972,1974,1975,1976)
All-NBA Second Team - 1 (1966,1969,1970,1971,1973,1976,1977,1978)
Hall of Fame - 1987
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Free Throw Percentage - #8
Points Per Game - #15
Steals Per Game - #15
Total Points - #24
Total Assists - #71
League Leads
Free Throw Percentage (#1-1969,1973,1975,1976,1978,1979,1980, #2-1966,1967,1971,1974,1977, #3-1970,1972)
Total Points (#1-1967, #2-1975, #3-1972, #4-1966, #5-1974)
Points Per Game (#1-1967, #2-1972,1975, #4-1966, #5-1974)
Total Steals (#1-1975, #3-1976, #5-1974)
Steals Per Game (#1-1975, #4-1976, #5-1974)
Three-Pointers Made (#2-1980, #4-1972)
Total Assists (#5-1976)
Assists Per Game (#5-1976)
Rick Barry led the nation in scoring as a senior at the University of Miami, scoring 37.4 per game, and also averaged 18.3 rebounds that season, which led the San Francisco Warriors to draft him with the 4th overall pick in the 1965 NBA Draft.
Barry was originally from New York City, and didn't want to play in California, but he went anyway, and he won the Rookie of the Year award that season with averages of 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds, and the Warriors fell just one game short of making the playoffs after winning only 17 games the year before.
In his second season, he led the league in scoring with 35.6 points per game, while also hauling in 9.2 rebounds per game. Barry was able to lead the Warriors all the way to the NBA Finals that season, where they faced Wilt Chamberlain and the 76ers, but despite Barry scoring 40.8 per game in the Finals, a record that would last for 26 years, they fell to Philadelphia in 6 games.
The ABA was created after that season, and Barry, unhappy that the Warriors' owner was not paying him incentive money he felt he was owed, decided to take a huge offer to move to the Oakland Oaks of the ABA, who were coached by Bruce Hale, his father-in-law and college coach. The Warriors sued because he was still under contract, and he was forced to sit out the next season.
When he was finally allowed to play for Oakland, he picked up right where he left off. He was leading the ABA in scoring when he injured his knee in December, forcing him to sit out for a month, then he attempted a comeback briefly in late January before being forced to miss the rest of the season. He ended up averaging 34.0 points per game, which would have led the league if he had played in enough games, and his team ended up going on to win the championship without him.
Even after winning a championship, the Oaks were losing money, so the team was sold and moved to Washington DC, and Barry did not want to join them. After missing 32 games, he was ordered by the court to report to the team or sit out the season, so he decided to play, and he was able to help the team make the playoffs, where they lost in the first round, despite Barry scoring 52 Game 7, still the most ever scored by any player in a Game 7.
The team moved again after that season, becoming the Virginia Squires, and Barry once again did not want to join them, so they traded him to the New York Nets, allowing him to play in his hometown. He missed time with a knee injury again that year, but still averaged 29.4 points per game, and led the Nets to the playoffs, where they lost to his old team, the Squires, in 6 games.
Barry finished #2 in the league in scoring the next season, putting up 31.5 per game, then upset the #1 seed Kentucky Colonels in the first round and the Virginia Squires in the Conference Finals to reach the ABA Finals, where they fell to the Pacers in 6 games. After the season, a court ruled that Barry's ABA contract was void and that he was not allowed to play for anyone but the Warriors, so he returned to California to rejoin his old team.
In his third season back in the NBA with the Warriors, Barry led the league with 2.9 steals per game and a .904 free throw percentage to go along with 30.6 points, and the Warriors surprised everyone by reaching the NBA Finals, where they faced the #1 seed Washington Bullets in what was viewed as a huge mismatch, but Golden State swept the Bullets behind Barry's 29.5 points per game, which earned him the Finals MVP award.
The Warriors brought in Gus Williams in the draft that year to help take the load off Barry, and it resulted in Barry averaging only 21.0 points per game that season, his career low at the time, but the Warriors had the best record in the league and was expected to repeat as champions. The repeat didn't happen, however, as the Warriors were upset by the Phoenix Suns in the Conference Finals, keeping Barry from his best shot at another title.
Barry played 2 more seasons with the Warriors, continuing to score over 20 points per game, before leaving as a free agent to join the Houston Rockets in 1978. In his first season with Houston, he set a new record for free throw percentage with a season average of .947, which has been beaten only 7 times since. After 2 seasons with the Rockets, he retired from the NBA.
Barry's biggest claim to fame is his free throw shooting prowess and unusual style. He shot free throws underhanded, but it worked incredibly well, as he finished in the top 3 in free throw shooting in every season he played, leading the league 7 different times. He was the all-time leader in free throw shooting percentage when he retired, though he has now fallen to #8 on that list.
Besides his free throw shooting, Barry was also a great scorer. He won a scoring title in the NBA in just his second season, and he is the ABA's all-time leader in scoring average, despite never officially winning a single-season scoring title in the ABA. His career scoring and steals averages both place him at #15 on the all-time list, and he was the only star player on the 1975 championship team, and he is definitely one of the greatest to ever play the game.
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