How Good Was Rick Barry REALLY?

[Music] richard francis dennis berry iii one of the great legends of nba in aba history who doesn't quite get the recognition his talent deserves barry is one of those players whose legacy suffers from the fact that he spent large portions of his career in both the nba and the aba by the end of his career he had many accolades and had accumulated many statistics but when you split those totals between two different leagues they tend to not stand out as much and are rarely brought up but in order to fully appreciate the greatness of the world's greatest granny shot shooter we have to start our evaluation at the beginning of his professional career barry was drafted with the second overall pick and the 1965 nba draft by the san francisco warriors the 21 year old is 6'7 small forward was immediately ready to live up to the high expectations he had many skills as he was a fantastic finisher around the rim and also a jump shooting sniper the most iconic part of his game was his underhand free-throw shooting other than the fact that this is a very rare shooting form barry's free throw shooting was famous for the fact that he was one of the most efficient shooters to ever do it as he shot 89.3 over the course of his career which is the seventh greatest of all time on the nba aba list in that rookie campaign barry put up numbers of 25.7 points 10.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists on 44 shooting which was good enough to win the rookie of the year award with this incredible debut season he led the warriors to more than double their win total from the previous season going from only 17 wins to 35 wins which was a great improvement but still came up short of the playoffs his second season would be a monumental leap forward not just for barry but for the entire team as well in a sense barry had statistically the most offensively dominant season from a forward in nba history that season he averaged a massive 35.6 points 9.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 45 shooting this was only his sophomore season in the league as a 22 year old and his 35.6 scoring average is still the eighth highest average for a season in nba history the only players to ever average more points in a single season was wilt chamberlain michael jordan and james harden behind this incredible charge of barry the warriors won 44 games to earn a playoff berth in the playoffs they swept the lakers in the first round they beat the saint louis hawks in the second round in six games and then in the nba finals they pushed the 68 win philadelphia 76ers to six games before being eliminated in that final series barry put up monstrous averages of 40.8 points 8.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists including an epic 55 point and 12 rebound performance in game 5. by the end of his second year the sky was the limit for rick but that's when his career would start to get kind of weird and controversial barry was clearly the biggest reason for the warrior's recent success and he felt frustrated as he believed he hadn't been appropriately compensated in terms of his finances free agency did not exist in the nba at this point but there was another professional basketball league in the form of the aba the issue became a legal one which resulted in barry leaving the nba for the aba and ultimately being forced to sit out the entire 67-68 season although some recognize barry's move as one where he was simply pursuing what he was worth there were also plenty of people who now saw him as a selfish money-hungry player when he finally returned to action as a 24 year old he was a member of the oakland oaks and it appeared as if he hadn't missed a beat the oaks made several big additions that year and the team launched to 60 wins after winning only 22 the previous season unfortunately barry wasn't there for much of it in the 35 games he played that year he averaged 34 points 9.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 51 shooting but nearly midway through the regular season barry collided with another player and tore ligaments in his left knee and his season was over from this point on knee problems would be something that barry would have to push through as i mentioned earlier the oaks had a great team all around not just barry and the team still went on to win the aba championship even with arguably their best player out despite the team's success the oaks were still the less popular bay area basketball team behind the nba's warriors so the oaks owners sold the franchise which was then relocated to washington dc where they became the washington caps once again barry was not thrilled about this situation and for a while he refused to report to the team even going as far as saying if i wanted to go to washington i'd run for president eventually he was forced to join the team where he then continued to put up his usual solid numbers in the playoffs they pushed the denver rockets to seven games and rick averaged 40.1 points over the course of the series but ultimately despite a 52 point performance in game seven barry and the caps were still eliminated over the next few years his rollercoaster career would continue to change its atmosphere and circumstances yet he would continue his elite play in scoring along with more of his controversy by the summer of 1972 a united states district court judge ruled that barry would have to play for the team that drafted him which was the warriors of the nba so it was back to the nba for barry his shining moment of his career would come just a couple years later as he was entering what was arguably the best season of his career as a 30 year old who had battled through knee injuries his game had evolved to be one that was dominating almost entirely from the perimeter as many people consider him the original point forward in that role he averaged 30.6 points 6.2 assists 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 steals on 46.4 percent shooting he led the league in steals free throw percentage and was six overall in assists he then led the warriors through the playoffs as they beat the sonics in six games the bulls in seven games and swept the heavily favored washington bullets in just four games and barry was named the finals mvp the champions headed into the next season as the favorites to win it all once again and they appeared is that they were poised to do just that as they won a league best 59 games that regular season but as usual every triumphant moment from barry is surrounded with drama the warriors made it to the western conference finals where they were facing the phoenix suns after six games the series was tied at three games apiece with the warriors expected to win the seventh game on their home floor the thing is within the first two minutes of this game rick berry and ricky sobers get into a huge fight you may notice from the footage that none of barry's teammates really come to his aid once the game reaches halftime the warriors are up by six points but that's when barry sees the footage and notices that none of his teammates have backed him up for pretty much the rest of the second half barry then refuses to shoot the ball he quickly passes it and he seems apathetic disengaged and as if he's completely quit on his team the warriors blow the lead and end up losing the series and what might be the biggest stain on barry's legacy he would go on to play several more years and add to his career totals but he would never return to his dominant glory days from this point on looking at the totality of his production from both pro leagues he was a 12-time all-star he made 10 all-nba all aba teams he's 24th on the all-time nba aba scoring list he has the 15th greatest scoring average of all time and easily has the greatest nba final scoring average ever at 36.3 and michael jordan is a distant second at 33.6 when it comes to his talent and production there's no question that rick berry is criminally underrated and is one of the most dominant wing players of all time when it comes down to how great he was as a teammate though well i'll leave that up to you guys to debate let me know in the comments section where you rank rick berry among the greatest small forwards in basketball history thanks for watching as always make sure to like and subscribe for more basketball content and i'll see you guys in the next video you

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Views: 123,483

Rating: 4.9332638 out of 5

Keywords: NBA, Basketball, ABA, Playoffs, Rick Barry, Rockets, Lakers, Granny Shot, Warriors, Michael Jordan, GOAT, How good was Rick Barry, Jimmy Highroller, SB Nation, Mike Korzemba, Dom2k, Undisputed, First Take, ESPN, Troydan, Andy Hoops, afunkydiabetic, Rusty Buckets, KrispyFlakes, SDC, BSolz, Heat Check, Golden Hoops, Scorer, LeBron James, Steph Curry, James Harden, Bleacher Report, Champion, Highlights, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Pete Maravich, Nets, Shaq, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Giannis

Id: dSmmaZ24D7E

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020