Rick Barry

While driving home from a New York Nets' game one night, my wife, Kathie remarked, "I'd hate to play Scrabble or Hearts with Rick Barry. If you beat him he'd probably overturn the board or shove the cards down your throat. I never saw a guy so tough on himself."

Credit Kathie with keen perception. Barry, at his best, is his own worst enemy -- only in a different way. He simply never satisfies himself, is always critical of his performance after a game, and hates to lose.

To believe Barry you'd think he never plays up to his true ability -- he's been bothered by leg ailments in recent years -- but, at times, it's hard to imagine anybody playing better than Barry does. Single-handedly, he often wins games.

For years, Barry has been the ABA at its absolute individual best. In the beginning, he was the young league's leading big-name star, and perhaps had an influence on others following suit and signing on with the upstart pro basketball circuit.

Bill Sharman, who coached Barry at San Francisco of the NBA, when he was rookie of the year during the 1965-66 season, averaging 25.7 points per game, and then the league's leading scorer as a second-year player in 1966-67 with a 35.6 average, can't say enough about Barry:

"This far in his career," says Sharman, "I would have to rank Rick as the greatest and most productive offensive forward ever to play the game. I think he's better than Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit, Paul Arizin and Dolph Schayes, and they were all tremendous performers.

"Not only is he a great shooter, but he's one of the game's finest passers. He hits the open man when he's double-teamed, which is often, and runs the pick and roll, setting up his teammates for easy layups, better than any player I've ever seen.

"He has to be the quickest 6-7 player the game of basketball has ever seen. He's awfully hard, if not impossible, to match up against defensively. He beats a bigger opponent with his quickness and goes over the little man. He is unstoppable going to the basket on a one-on-one situation and is usually successful one-on-two.

"I would have to call him super, super on the fast break. He can penetrate, make the basket and draw the foul better than anyone. He has great body-balance and body-control He has all the shots -- the hook, jumper, fade-away, set and the layups with either or both hands.

"He's an intense competitor, whether it's basketball, golf, checkers or anything else (maybe Scrabble or Hearts, Kathie) -- he just doesn't want to lose. He's one guy I never had to worry about being up for a game."

Enough said?