Rick Barry Born in Elizabeth, NJ (1944)
Rick Barry
Driving the basket, hitting jumpers, making his famous underhand free throw over and over- Rick Barry always found a way to score. He was the only player ever to lead the NCAA, NBA, and ABA in scoring for a season each. He averaged 29.8 points per game in college and 24.8 points during a fourteen-year pro career. In 1966-67, the year he led the NBA with 35.6 points per game, Rick almost single handily took the San Francisco Warriors to the championship finals.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on March 28, 1944, Barry first displayed his gifts as an All-State high school player. At the University of Miami he scored 19 points per game his first varsity season, then exploded in his junior year, averaging 32.2 ppg. In 1965, his senior year, Rick was a unanimous All-American selection, scoring 37.4 points per game, the best in the nation. He also averaged 18.7 rebounds.
Despite Barry’s great scoring talent, the San Francisco Warriors didn’t draft the 6 foot 7-inch, 205 pound forward until the second round. Barry quickly proved he belonged in the NBA . His rookie year, he scored 25.7 points per game and grabbed 10.6 rebounds to win the league’s Rookie of the Year Award.
The following year Barry won the MVP Award in the All-Star Game, led the NBA in scoring, and took the Warriors to the 1967 finals against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers won easily, but Barry had an outstanding series, averaging 40.8 points per game- a record that lasted until 1993, when it was broken by Michael Jordan.
In 1967-68 contract troubles with Rick’s new team the Oakland Oaks of the ABA, kept him out of action for the season. When he finally did play again, he finished the next three seasons second in scoring. A series of injuries limited his playing time in the ABA, but Barry was still named an All-Star each year he played in the league, and he finished with a career ABA average of 30.5 points per game.
In 1972-73 Rick went back to the Warriors. He scored 22.3 points per game and led the league in free throw percentage – a feat he repeated four more times before he retired. During the second half of his NBA career, Rick had his best season in 1974-75, when he helped the underrated Warriors win their only league title since the team had moved from Philadelphia to the West Coast.
1977-78 was Rick’s last year in a Warriors’ uniform. He signed as a free-agent with the Houston Rockets, but is still remembered as one of the Warriors greatest payers and has taken his place as one of the most talented athletes basketball has ever seen.
