IN my program “Sports For All” last Friday, National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Rick Barry called out sports broadcasters, specifically play-by-play announcers and commentators, who keep calling the obvious like poor shot selection or bad passes or unforced turnovers.
Barry thinks focus should be on what caused the poor shot selection or who or what forced the bad pass or the turnover. His thoughts come from many years of calling games which gave him a different perspective of the game both figuratively and literally.
It’s not everyday that you have a conversation with one of greatest players the game has ever seen. Playing for the Golden State Warriors, his role was to score. In four years in the American Basketball Association (ABA), he did everything—score, pass and defend—for the Oakland Oaks. According to NBA.com, Barry’s game became more well rounded and he became a better defender as a court decision forced him to honor his contract with the Warriors.
Talking to the man, you’d sense that he doesn’t hold back and he has supreme confidence and belief in himself and his ability which manifested in the form of 18,000 points in 10 years in the NBA and 7,000 points in only four years in the ABA.
You don’t score 25,000 points in professional basketball without any iota of confidence and belief in yourself plus a strong work ethic. In the last two years of his Hall of Fame career, he played for the Houston Rockets that featured Hall of Famers Moses Malone, Calvin Murphy, and Rudy Tomjanovich.
The former University of Miami Hurricane standout became more of a facilitator, the first “point-forward” in the history of the league.
The 1987 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinee is a disciple and a student of team basketball. He believes in moving the ball around to constantly pressure the defense to adjust and adapt. I asked him what would have happened if the team he won a title with, the 1975 champion Warriors, played the 73-9 Golden State Warriors? The teams are from two different eras and basketball was played differently back in the day so it’s an unfair comparison.
Barry, who is on the top 50 and top 75 list of greatest players in NBA history, opines that there’s no such thing as a “lockdown defender.” The goal is to make it difficult for the offensive player to score on a high volume of shots. Another goal is to make the offensive player expend a lot of energy trying to score. The best defense is team defense, not just solely relying on just one player to stop the opposing team’s best player.
The man who has mastered the underhand free throw, shooting more than 90 percent for most of his career, has five sons—Scooter, Jon, Brent, Drew and Canyon. Drew, Jon and Brent played in the NBA and Canyon is currently plying his trade in the G-League for the Iowa Wolves.
Barry thinks his Jon would’ve been a factor in the 2001 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers had he not been released. Had Jon played, the Kings, instead of the Lakers, would have played the Nets in the finals. Jon played for the Kings for two years bringing energy off the bench and instant offense.
Rick would’ve played for two to three more years had he had his knee scoped and cleaned earlier. He felt his knee was as good as it has ever been after the procedure and had he wanted to continue playing, he would have ended up with the Boston Celtics and the likes of Parish, Bird and McHale and his role would’ve been the same as when he was with the Rockets, a facilitator, a point-forward focused on making his teammates look good and getting them in spots where they can score the basketball.
Barry loves the way the current Warriors play thanks to Coach Steve Kerr—an abundance of ball movement and player movement, just like the way his 1975 Warriors played.
I think it is obvious that Rick Barry was pretty good at basketball, but he won’t call it.