Fastest Gunner in the West

PRO BASKETBALL

The kind of person who sits through the same movie three times loves pro basketball. The script is always the same (When was the last time the Boston Celtics lost the championship?), and the faces are familiar: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson. Nor was it news last week when those perennial cellar dwellers, the New York Knicks, lost their sixth out of seven games, 115-109 to the Cincinnati Royals. All in all, the new National Basketball Association season was more of the same, with one big exception: the sensational shooting of San Francisco's Rick Barry.

A stringy, 6-ft. 7-in. forward who was the No. 1 college scorer at the University of Miami two years ago, Barry, 22, is the deadliest "gunner" to hit the N.B.A. since Oscar Robertson in 1960. Last season he averaged 25.7 points a game, was voted N.B.A. Rookie of the Year. Star rookies often suffer from "the sophomore jinx" during their second pro season, but Barry is bombarding the basket at a fantastic rate. Last week he poured in 40 points as the San Francisco Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets 120-110. After 21 games, Rick was averaging 38.5 points per game--almost seven points more than Cincinnati's Robertson and 14 points ahead of Wilt ("The Stilt") Chamberlain, the N.B.A.'s all-time top scorer. And so the Warriors were leading the Western Division by two games.

Despite his height, Barry is hardly a giant by pro standards; although he collects his share of "garbage" points at close range, he is also an accurate outside shooter, leads all N.B.A. players with a record of 88% at the free-throw line. (Chamberlain, by contrast, has hit on only 38%.) Rick perfected his long-range shooting in off-season practice sessions with his wife Pamela, the daughter of Miami Coach Bruce Hale. "We played a game against each other," he says. "I would only shoot from 20 or 25 ft. out, and Pam would take shots from closer to the basket. She beat me a few times--but that's not so strange. We both had the same coach."

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