YouTube Gold: Rick Barry
Widely disliked, hugely influential
Occasionally a great player comes along who is just widely disliked. This happened to Christian Laettner in college of course. Duke fans loved him but almost no one else did. Dennis Rodman was widely disdained but that was as much because of his bizarre attention seeking stunts as anything else. Bill Laimbeer was hated by just about everyone in the NBA because he overcame his lack of talent with what many saw as dirty play (don’t get Larry Bird started on Laimbeer).
But in many ways, the least popular player in NBA history may well have been Rick Barry.
Born in New Jersey in 1944, Barry attended Miami where he had a brilliant career before being drafted by the (then) San Francisco Warriors.
He had a falling out with the owner of the Warriors and jumped to the ABA, which made him highly unpopular with many, before returning in 1972.
Barry led the Warriors to a surprising NBA title in 1975 but in the 1976 Western Conference Finals, Ricky Sobers attacked him and none of his teammates came to his aid, which is a pretty good argument for being the least popular player in NBA history.
After retirement, he made it clear that he’d like to stay involved with the game in some way but no one wanted to deal with his prickly, demanding personality.
Still, it was also true that no one could deny his greatness. Barry was a perfectionist who mastered every aspect of the game, not least of all free throws. He was the last significant underhanded free throw shooter - he makes a solid case for it - and had a lifetime average of 89.3 percent.
He also essentially invented the point forward concept.
Even so, he left the game as one of, if not the least popular legends in NBA History.