Given His Dad’s Name, Barry Earned the Rest

Literally a son of a gun, Richard Francis (Scooter) Barry IV’s father once had the basketball game of a lifetime, and Scooter was there to see it. The old man scored 64 points for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Assn. one night in Oakland, and after the 64th, he flung the ball into the crowd, two sections up, right smack into his son’s hands. Scooter Barry had the basketball game of his lifetime Sunday, but his father was not there to see it.

Good, his coach said.

“He played good because his dad was away,” Kansas Coach Larry Brown said, after Scooter’s career-high 15 points helped the Jayhawks beat Kansas State, 71-58, in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Midwest Regional at the Pontiac Silverdome. “He watched on TV, and that was great. When he comes to the games, he’s a nervous wreck. Scooter can’t play with two coaches.”

Scooter’s real coach smiled.

“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Brown said.

Rick Barry is Scooter’s nervous wreck of a father, and he and Larry Brown are buddies from way back. They were roommates together on the old Oakland Oaks of the American Basketball Assn.--Scooter’s grandfather, the late Bruce Hale, once coached that team--and Brown was acquainted with li’l Scooter ever since the toddler was scooting around the house all the time, earning his nickname.

It wasn’t easy being Rick Barry’s kid, having a Hall of Fame father who was one of the NBA’s all-time gunners and scorers, a father whose underhanded methods at the free-throw line made him one of the most successful and mocked players of our time. Scooter’s shooter of a dad has been involved in pro basketball in one way or another for a couple of decades, most recently as an announcer on the TBS superstation.

“At this point, comparisons are pretty stupid,” Scooter said. “We don’t play the same position. We don’t have the same mentality on the court. We’re not the same person. In high school, the comparisons used to bother me a lot. On this level, though, there haven’t been any comparisons.”

How come?

“I’ve never scored more than 10 points in a game,” Scooter said, flashing a wide grin.

Oh, yes, he has. The 6-3 1/2 junior guard--who scored 15 points all of last season-- came off the bench Sunday to make 5 of 6 shots, including a three-pointer with time running out in the first half that his coach called the turning point of the game.

Barry also sank 4 of 4 free throws--all in the conventional manner. None of that sissy-style stuff for Scooter.

“Yeah, I can,” he said, asked if he can shoot free throws the way his dad did. “But, I’d only shoot them underhanded if I could shoot them better that way. I make about the same amount the regular way as I do underhanded, so I leave it alone. I don’t really want the publicity and hype that would come with my doing it the other way.”

Scooter Barry is an interesting story, just as his team is. He has sort of come out of nowhere, same as the Jayhawks themselves have. Coming out of De La Salle High in Concord, Calif., where he averaged 12 points a game, he was technically a walk-on, with no scholarship, until this season. And, nothing much was expected of him--nor of Kansas’s guards, which is why Brown spent last spring going after junior college point guards such as Otis Livingston of El Camino JC in Torrance, who has since been suspended from the squad because of a personality conflict with the coach.

Brown had no such problems with Barry, practically being an uncle to him. Scooter, though, the son of a friend and famous free-throw artist, wanted no charity.

“As a freshman, I was a lot weaker than I am now,” said Scooter, who is still pretty much of a string bean. “I’d like to think the coach was banking on my getting stronger and improving, as well as maybe hoping I might someday develop into the sort of player my dad was, or at least something similar.

“When I finally got the scholarship, I told him, ‘I don’t want this out of pity, or out of a favor because you know my dad.’ He said he would never give anyone a scholarship that way. So, I feel confident that I got it fairly.”

There was nothing about Barry’s performance Sunday to suggest that he was any sort of charity case. Besides his 15 points, he contributed 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, all in 25 minutes. He hustled all over the court, saying he was extra-motivated by having been chewed up and spat out by Kansas State guard Steve Henson at the Big Eight tournament two weeks ago, where Henson outscored him, 18-2. This time it was 15-6, Scooter.

Kansas State Coach Lon Kruger could hardly believe his eyes, but he was happy as it was humanly possible for a losing coach to be for an opposing player. “He hit some shots today, and I hadn’t really ever seen him do that before,” Kruger said. “I thought he was a big key to the game, and if a kid’s going to be the key, I like to see it be the hard workers, the ones who really deserve it. Barry’s that kind of kid.”

Scooter’s game improved considerably over the summer, when he worked at Pete Maravich’s basketball camp. When Maravich collapsed and died in January at a Pasadena pickup game, Barry was stunned.

“He was one of my idols,” Scooter said.

He had a thought after Pistol Pete died, followed by a second thought.

“I’d like to say I dedicated this season to him,” Scooter said. “But I didn’t want to have a bad season.”

He hasn’t. He has made people proud, including the Pistol, who is gone, and the gun, who was out there somewhere, watching on TV, a nervous wreck.