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Rick Barry will go down as one of the greatest, albeit misunderstood and controversial, stars in basketball history. He was born in New Jersey and, after a successful high school career, enrolled at the University of Miami (Florida). With a dead-eye outside shot, Barry put Hurricane basketball on the map by averaging 29 and 37 points in his two seasons there, leading the nation in scoring his senior season. Barry was then picked 4th in the 1965 NBA Draft by the San Francisco Warriors. He picked up right where he left off, averaging 28 points a game as a rookie and 35 the next season, leading the NBA in scoring. That season, the Warriors reached the NBA Finals, where they lost to Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers in six games. Barry left his mark on those Finals, averaging 41 points in the six games and scoring 55 in one game.
In 1967, a new fledgling league was starting, the American Basketball Association, and many NBA players wanted to defect for higher pay, including Barry. But, the Warriors balked, saying Barry still had to fulfill his contract with them. Barry's argument was that the Oakland Oaks, the team he wanted to sign with, were coached by Bruce Hale, his old college coach and father-in-law. The NBA and Barry were locked in a legal dispute that lasted close to a season and a half, and Barry was painted as selfish, money-hungry, and ego-driven, even though other NBA players were trying to do the same thing. Barry won out in the end, and was allowed to join the Oaks with 35 games left in the 1968-69 season, becoming the first big NBA star to jump leagues. The Oaks, however, by then were coached by Alex Hannum, who replaced the fired Hale in 1968. Barry played enough in 1968-69 with the Oaks to qualify for the league scoring title, which he won, thus making him the only player to lead both leagues in scoring. More importantly, he led the Oaks to the ABA title over the Indiana Pacers.
As with many ABA teams, the Oaks had trouble making financial ends meet and had to move from Oakland to Washington, D.C., which didn't suit too well with Rick, who was quoted as saying, "If I wanted to go to Washington, I'd run for President!" Barry was forced by the league to report to the team and played the final 52 games of the 1969-70 season. After that season, the financially-strapped team was forced to move again, this time to Norfolk, Virginia, and adopt the name of the Virginia Squires. Barry openly rebelled against playing in the South, both to friends and the press, going so far as to say, "I don't want my son coming home and saying 'Howdy, ya'll!'" He forced the club to deal him to the New York Nets, where he played for two seasons.
In 1972, the now-Golden State Warriors found a loophole in Barry's contract that would force him to return to the NBA and to the Warriors. Barry complied, and played with them for seven seasons, including the 1974-75 season, where he led the Warriors to a shocking four-game sweep in the NBA Finals over the Washington Bullets. The Warriors traded Barry after the 1977-78 season to the Houston Rockets for John Lucas. He played two seasons for the Rockets before retiring in 1980.
