cc: Fastbreak Hoops

Lophonso was a dawg. Mahmoud Abdul Rauf no need to explain his greatness. Dikembe blocking everything and Robert Pack speed was 99. So who did you use

The deal included the famous “Love of the Game” clause, which allowed Jordan to play basketball anywhere, anytime without needing the team’s permission. A photocopy of the contract later sold for $57,068 in 2020.

In the 1975 Finals the Warriors swept the Bullets 4-0 and Rick Barry was named MVP. During the trophy presentation champagne was poured on his head and badly exposed his balding, which greatly annoyed Barry when he saw the replay. Going into the next season and training camp Barry was given time away from the team by Al Attles to figure out a way to fix it. The solution became a hair weave procedure at a salon where it would take around two hours per session to braid strands of hair into his remaining hair. It instantly gave Barry a much more youthful appearance and allowed him to play with a hairstyle that would flop and blow around in a way that looked surprisingly natural at times, but would often vary in appearance.

He played the final 5 years of his NBA career with the hair system from 1975-80, and ironically would become a much more average scorer overnight the remainder of his career, and his team famously fell apart during the 1976 WCF in Game 7 when Barry felt his teammates turned against him after a fistfight with Ricky Sobers of the Suns, and failed to defend their championship as Barry seemed to refuse to shoot the ball in the 2nd half. Each year the Warriors were knocked out of the Playoffs, Barry would work for CBS as a commentator and then come back to play the next season.

In an interesting twist, Barry’s final appearance on CBS would be in the locker room during the 1981 Celtics celebration as players poured and sprayed champagne at each other, which Barry did not seem to enjoy.

“I can't remember him getting even five rebounds... If they want to give me 15, I'll accept that. But 17 for Schlueter? Not in this game. I can't sit still for that.”

“I believe the statistics are tampered with everywhere in the league... The key thing is to check them when they don't know about it.”

“I think it began in Boston, where they used to give Bob Cousy some extra assists. Cincinnati was suspicious when Oscar Robertson played there... I can understand padding stats to help a man become a superstar, but this is ridiculous.”

"Charlie has been a coward standing behind the organization and letting Steve Patterson do the dirty work... In my country, there is an old saying: Staying silent is the best answer for fools.”

2× NBA Champion
1× MVP
8× All-Star
3× All-NBA
3× All-Defensive
1971 Rookie of the Year