Richard Francis Dennis Barry III (born March 28, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player. Barry ranks among the most prolific scorers and all-around players in basketball history. He is the only player to lead the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), American Basketball Association (ABA), and National Basketball Association (NBA) in points per game in a season. He ranks as the all-time ABA scoring leader in regular season (30.5 points per game) and postseason (33.5) play, while his 36.3 points per game are the most in NBA Finals history.
Barry is widely known for his unorthodox underhand free throw technique. His career .880 free throw percentage ranks No. 1 in ABA history, and his .900 percentage was the best of any NBA player at the time of his retirement in 1980. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. In October 2021, Barry was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
Barry is the father of former professional basketball players Brent Barry, Jon Barry, Drew Barry, Scooter Barry, and Canyon Barry. His wife, Lynn Norenberg Barry, was a star basketball player at the College of William & Mary, where she became the first female athlete to have her jersey number (22) retired.
Barry was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Roselle Park, an urban middle-class community. As a fifth-grader, he played with the varsity basketball team, for which his father Aldo served as coach, however, baseball was his best sport and he was a fan of local New York Giants superstar Willie Mays, who wore jersey number 24. Barry once skipped school to shake Mays's hand at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, where the Giants played not far from his home. He wore the same number in tribute to the outfielder throughout his basketball career. In 1962, he graduated from Roselle Park High School in Roselle Park.
Barry fielded over 30 scholarship offers before choosing the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida largely because the Hurricanes adhered to an up-tempo, pro-style system under head coach Bruce Hale, which was conducive to Barry's skill set and athleticism. It was there that the three-time All-American met his future wife Pamela, who was the daughter of the head coach.
Barry averaged 19.0 points and 14.6 rebounds per game in his first season of eligibility. After those numbers made sizable jumps to 32.2 and 16.6 as a junior, he entered his final season as a consensus preseason All-America selection. Some believed that only his hair-trigger temper could prevent it. While widely lauded for his unselfishness and leadership, he had developed a reputation as something of a hothead, especially as it concerned the referees.
In December, the senior made headlines in the 1965 Hurricane Classic, in which he scored 14 of his team's final 17 points in an 80–73 defeat of Maryland in the championship game and was named Most Valuable Valuable of the tournament. Barry went on to lead the country with an average of 37.4 points per game, the third-highest mark in NCAA history at the time. Included were games of 59, 55, 54, 51 and 50 points as well as five others of 40 or more. His 475 rebounds (18.3 per game) also ranked No. 4 in the nation.
While the Hurricanes rolled to a 22–4 record, the second best win percentage in school history, Barry and his teammates were ineligible for the NCAA tournament. The basketball program was on probation for one season, which limited his national recognition and opportunity to be the first overall pick in the 1965 NBA draft.
Barry finished his college career with 2,298 points (29.8 per game) in 77 appearances, 61 in which he had 20 points or more. He still owns 15 single-game, season or career records, including most points and most rebounds. In 1976, Barry was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. His number 24 jersey is one of only two to have been retired by the university.
San Francisco Warriors (1965–1967)
Barry was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors with the second pick of the NBA draft. In his pro debut, the team more than doubled its wins total from 17 to 35 and was in playoff contention until the final game of the regular season. Nicknamed the "Miami Greyhound" by longtime San Francisco Bay Area broadcaster Bill King because of his long and slender physical build, whippet-like quickness, and remarkable instincts, the 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Barry won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award after averaging 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in the 1965–66 season.
Barry moved to the American Basketball Association's Oakland Oaks (owned by singer Pat Boone). Bruce Hale, who coached at Miami and was Barry's father-in-law, was tapped to serve as head coach. Barry signed for a salary of $75,000 along with 15 percent ownership of the Oaks and 5 percent of Oaks' gate receipts above $600,000. When asked about the deal, he stated, "I know what a lot of people think of me. They call me a traitor. Is that fair? If they would just look at it the same way they do their own businesses. This is the way I support my family. Why should I be called unloyal? They change their jobs and nobody says they're unloyal. If everything was based just on loyalty, no one would ever make any money."
The courts ordered Barry to sit out the 1967–68 season for the Oaks, upholding the validity of the reserve clause in his Warriors contract. Barry's court case preceded by two years that of St. Louis Cardinals' outfielder Curt Flood, whose own challenge to the reserve clause went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although Flood's challenge is better known, Barry was in fact the first American professional athlete to bring a court action against a major league.
The Oaks finished 22–56 in their ABA debut, which Barry spent as part of their broadcast team. Prior to the 1968–69 season, they hired his former San Francisco Warriors coach Alex Hannum to replace Hale, who moved to a front office position. In his ABA debut, he averaged a league-high 34.0 points per game. Barry also paced the league in free throw percentage in the regular season, a feat he would repeat in the 1970–71 and 1971–72 seasons.
Barry had his season come to an abrupt halt on December 27, 1968, when late in a game against the New York Nets, he was blindsided by Ken Wilburn on a drive to the basket and tore left knee ligaments on the play. He attempted to come back in January 1969, only to aggravate the injury and sit out the remainder of the season. He took part in only 35 games but still was named to the ABA All-Star team.
The Oaks finished with a 60–18 record under Hannum, dominating the Western Division by 14 games over the second-place New Orleans Buccaneers. In the 1969 ABA Playoffs, the Oaks ousted the Denver Rockets in a seven-game series then swept the Buccaneers in the Western Division finals. In the championship round, they made short work of the Indiana Pacers, 4–1, to capture the league title.
Barry played the 1969–70 season with the ABA's Washington Caps. He missed the first 32 games before he joined the team, which played in the Western Division, making for a grueling travel schedule. The Caps still managed to finish with a respectable 44–40 record, good for third place in the Western Division. Appearing in only 52 games because of a knee injury, Barry finished the season with 1,442 points (27.7 per game), second-best in the league. The Denver Rockets edged the Caps, 4–3, in the Western Division semifinals. In Game 7 on the road, Barry went off for 52 points, which set a new ABA record for points in a playoff game (later topped a month later by Roger Brown). It is still the most points scored in a seventh and deciding game in professional basketball history.
The Washington Caps became the Virginia Squires after the 1969–70 season, but Barry was openly despondent about playing in Virginia. At the same time, he wanted to continue playing in the ABA. Featured on the August 24, 1970, cover of Sports Illustrated in a Squires jersey, he indicated that he would not return to the NBA if the league paid him "a million dollars a year." He denounced the Squires (and, subsequently, never suited up for them), saying he did not want his kids growing up with a Southern accent. On September 1, 1970, the Squires traded Barry to the New York Nets for a draft pick and $200,000.