Rick Barry

Every Warriors fan who came up before Steph had one name for the greatest player the franchise ever had out here, and it was Rick Barry. He scored from everywhere, he passed like a guard, and he shot his free throws underhanded like nobody else in the league would dare.

He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on March 28, 1944, and grew up in Roselle Park. His father coached him, and his favorite athlete was Willie Mays. He wore 24 for Mays his whole career. At the University of Miami he led the country at 37.4 points a game as a senior.

The San Francisco Warriors took him second overall in 1965. He averaged 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year, and made first team All NBA. Bill King called him the Miami Greyhound.

His second year was ridiculous. He scored 2,775 points and led the league at 35.6 a game, the first time since 1959 that the scoring title didn't belong to Wilt Chamberlain. He was MVP of the All Star Game, played right here in the Bay Area, with 38 points. Then he took us to the Finals against Wilt's 76ers, poured in 55 in a Game 3 win, and lost in six.

Then he left. He signed with Bruce Hale, his college coach and father in law, and the ABA's Oakland Oaks, and the courts made him sit out 1967/68 because of the reserve clause in his Warriors contract. He spent that year on the Oaks broadcasts instead. He was the first American pro athlete to take a major league to court over it, two years before Curt Flood.

When he finally played for the Oaks in 1968/69 he led the ABA at 34.0 a game before tearing up his left knee in December. The Oaks won the ABA title that spring without him on the floor. The team moved to Washington, then Virginia, and Barry wound up with the New York Nets, where he won two more scoring titles and reached the 1972 ABA Finals.

In 1972 a court sent him back to the Warriors. He came home about 20 pounds heavier and a different player, shooting less and passing more. On March 26, 1974, he dropped 64 points on Portland, the best night of his career.

Then came 1974/75. His teammates voted him captain. He averaged 30.6 points, led the league in free throw percentage at .904 and steals at 2.9 a game, and was the only forward in the top ten in assists. Al Attles ran a ten man rotation around him, with Jamaal Wilkes, then Keith, winning Rookie of the Year.

Nobody thought the Warriors had a chance. They survived Chicago in seven, then swept the 60 win Washington Bullets in the Finals, with the home games moved to the Cow Palace because the Oakland arena was booked. Barry averaged 29.5 points and was Finals MVP.

He stayed through 1977/78, then signed with Houston, where he became a point forward and dished out a career high 502 assists. He retired in 1980 with a .900 NBA free throw percentage, the best in league history at the time, and 25,279 points between the two leagues.

The Hall of Fame took him in 1987. The Warriors retired number 24 on March 18, 1988. The NBA named him to its 50th and 75th anniversary teams. He's still the only player ever to lead the NCAA, ABA and NBA in scoring, and three of his sons, Jon, Brent and Drew, played in the NBA.

Barry's whole career was a guy who wanted the ball when it mattered and didn't care who knew it. In the 1967 Finals, against a 76ers team people still call one of the best ever, he scored 30 or more in every game, averaged 40.8, and put up 55 in Game 3. His Finals career average of 36.3 points is still the highest in NBA history.

In 1975 he did it with less help than any champion should have. Facing elimination in Game 6 of the West finals at Chicago, he scored 36. In the two home games of the Finals at the Cow Palace he scored 74 points, including 36 in a one point win in Game 2.

And he never missed when it was free. Six NBA free throw titles and a .900 career mark, shot underhanded, under pressure, with the whole building watching. Late in a close game, you wanted the ball in his hands or you wanted him at the line. Either way, you knew.