National Basketball Association

Top 50 NBA players from last 50 years: Rick Barry ranks No. 26

Updated May. 19, 2022 9:42 p.m. ET

Editor's Note: As part of a new series for his podcast, "What’s Wright with Nick Wright," FOX Sports commentator Nick Wright is ranking the 50 best NBA players of the last 50 years. The countdown continues today with player No. 26, Rick Barry.

Rick Barry’s career highlights:

1975 Finals MVP
Eight-time NBA All-Star
Five-time first-team All-NBA, one-time second team
1967 scoring champion
1975 steals champion
Six-time NBA free-throw percentage leader
1966 Rookie of the Year

Rick Barry scored a ton, shot his free throws underhand, clashed with teammates and opponents alike, and sat out an entire season during his prime over principle. He was, in a word, uncompromising.

"He seemed to really rub people the wrong way," Wright said. "People really didn’t seem to like him."

That has undoubtedly impacted how Barry is remembered. It does not change how great he was. The tenacious small forward's rough averages of 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists don't tell even half the story.

"One guy who might be the most underrated, truly great player of a generation," Wright said.

Rick Barry is No. 26 on Nick Wright's Top 50 NBA Players of the Last 50 Years

One of the most unstoppable scorers in both his era and NBA history overall, Barry is the only player to ever lead the NBA, NCAA and ABA in scoring. He scored more than 18,000 points in his NBA career and, when combined with his ABA days, accumulated more than 25,000 points as a pro.

He was a generational talent from Day 1.

At age 21, Barry averaged 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds to win Rookie of the Year. At 22, he scored more than anyone ever has at that age. His 35.6 points per game were five more than anyone else in the 1966-67 campaign, yet were just a precursor of his playoff genius. He put up 34.7 points over the following weeks to catapult the 44-win Warriors to the Finals, where they’d fall to Wilt Chamberlain’s 68-win 76ers. Barry, for what it’s worth, led both teams in scoring in all six games and averaged 40.8 for the series.

And then he walked away from the NBA. Upset with then-Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli over a contract dispute, Barry signed with the upstart ABA’s Oakland Oaks and was forced to sit out one year in a historic move that ultimately begat free agency in basketball.

The break had no bearing on his brilliance. Over four seasons in the ABA, the two-way star made four all-league first teams, averaged a career-record 30.5 points and finished top five in MVP voting three times.

Similar to his magical Finals run in 1967, Barry continued to elevate his game in the playoffs. His 52 points in Game 7 of the 1970 Western Division semifinals are still the most for a deciding game in pro basketball history. He had 45 points in an elimination game the following year. In 1972, Barry opened the postseason with another 50-point game and led the New York Nets to the title round.

Later that summer, a U.S. District Court judge barred Barry from playing pro basketball for anyone but the Warriors. While his first year back in the Bay wasn’t quite up to his standard, Barry did manage to lead Golden State to a series win over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Bucks.

Barry soon evolved into a point forward and reestablished himself as one of the best players in the league. In 1974-75, he finished second in scoring (30.6), first in steals (2.9) and dished out 6.2 assists per game during the regular season. He then jumpstarted another deep playoff run with 39 points, five rebounds, 11 assists and eight steals in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. With the Warriors trailing the Bulls in the conference finals, Barry scored 36 points in Games 4 and 6 to spark a seven-game victory.

In a sweep of the Bullets in the Finals, Barry averaged 29.5 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 steals to claim MVP honors.

A year later, Barry earned his third top-five finish in the NBA MVP race and had the Warriors back in the conference finals. He averaged 27.6 points in a seven-game loss to the Suns, and then 28.4 points for the following postseason.

Only four players with 100 playoff games have scored more per game than Barry (27.3). His average in the Finals (36.3) is the highest ever. He also holds the ABA record for postseason average (33.5).

"His playoff résumé is really, really spectacular," Wright said.

All of Barry's basketball résumé is.