RIP Marvin Barnes

rimrocker · Sep 8, 2014

Marvin passed away today at the age of 62. He was one of the great characters and players in basketball history.

Barnes was a 6'8" forward from Providence college who came to the ABA in 1974 with the Spirits of St. Louis. In the 1975 playoffs he outplayed Julius Erving, leading St. Louis to a huge upset of defending Champion New York. Barnes averaged 24-16-3 and 2 blocks as a rookie. Some stories:

Bob Costas got his start in 1974 doing radio for the Spirits. He recalls one of his first meetings with Barnes in the team.

Late in November the Spirits had a game in Memphis, As usual I had no money and our checks were not available until noon. Consequently I didn't take the morning flight with the team. I had a 3pm flight to Memphis...but when I got to the airport there was fog in Memphis. Flights were delayed and we didn't take off until six o'clock. When it landed the game had already begun, I listened to the game on Memphis radio on my way in. Our station was playing dead air. I got to the game late in the first quarter and suffered through the rest. I thought I was going to be fired.

Back at the Hotel I told the guys what had happened and how I was in big trouble. Gus Gerard said, "So what can they do to you, they'll just fine you, you'll pay it and it's over." I told them they don't fine guys in radio, they fire them for missing games. Marvin Barnes piped up and said; "Hey bro, don't worry about it, I've been lookin' for a little white dude to drive me around in my Rolls-Royce" It was nice to know I had something to fall back on.
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Harvey Weltman was the President of the Spirits during their two years of existence.

Look at what Marvin did for us a rookie. He averaged 24 points, 16 rebounds and shot 50%, and he did it with the worst shot selection I've ever seen from a pro player. He would get the ball turn and shoot it. He didn't care where he was on the court.
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Rod Thorn was the coach of the Nets in 1974-75 and the Spirits for part of 1975-76.

Marvin showed up for (the 1974) playoffs. He showed what a great talent he was. But even then, before one of the playoff games, Marvin ate a huge plate of Nachos in the dressing room while he was changing. Most guys would throw up doing that, but he went out and played like King Kong against us.
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Costas Recalls:

In game one he had 41 points. In game two we just killed them, 117-97. With 10 minutes to go, Julius had only six points, Marvin had 37 and 18 rebounds.
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Barnes:

"I'm a basketball player, not a monk. I play the women, I play the clothes, I play the cars, I play everything I can play. There's players and there's playees. The playees are the ones who get played by the players. I am a player."
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Don Chaney, the former Celtics and Laker guard and longtime NBA coach who played one year with Barnes.

One day, Marvin came in the dressing room with a 9-millimeter gun. He started pointing it at people and guys were hitting the floor. We figured he had finally freaked out, but he was just messing around. He didn't have a magazine in the gun. I don't know how many times I saw him stay out all night, get an hours sleep and then go out and score 35 points. His pregame meal was usually hamburgers, hot dogs and twinkees.
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Steve Jones, another former team mate of Barnes and former TNT and NBA on NBC analyst:

"The classic Marvin Barnes story came when we played a game in New York and the next day we had a game in Norfolk. We had an early morning flight out of LaGuardia and naturally, Marvin wasn't there."
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From there Spirits GM Rudy Martzke picks up the story...

"I got a call about three in the afternoon from Bob MacKinnon who told me Marvin missed the 9am, 11am and 1 pm flights to Norfolk. He hadn't heard from Marvin and figured there was no way he'd make the game."
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Costas picks up the story at it's turning point...

"When he got the airport and found all the flights were gone, he cut a deal with a private plane to take him to Norfolk. About 10 minutes before the game, coach MacKinnon was talking strategy and Marvin burst through the doors wearing a huge grin and proclaimed "Boys, Gametime is on time."
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Jones wraps up the episode...

"Marvin was wearing a big wide-brimmed hat and his floor length $100,000 mink coat. He had a bag of McDonalds hamburgers and fries with him. Then he proclaimed, "Have no fear, BB is here." He opened the coat and underneath he was wearing his Spirits uniform."
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*As a side note Barnes went for 51 and 19 rebounds that game despite sitting the first 8 minutes.

Finally, Costas on Barnes fear of flying...sometimes...

It was a given that Marvin would miss the 11 a.m shoot around in Kentucky. Once we got the itinerary for that trip and noticed that the flight was exactly one hour. Because of the change of time zones our return flight would leave Louisville at 8 am and arrive in St. Louis at 7:59. Marvin looked at it and announced "I ain't gettin' on no time machine."
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http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198174

rimrocker · Sep 8, 2014

Didn't realize I posted this in GARM. Always intended for it to go here. My apologies.

rockbox · Sep 8, 2014

Sound like Dennis Rodman with an offensive game.

A_3PO · Sep 8, 2014

Bad News Barnes. I completely forgot about the guy.

Did he play with Maurice Lucas in St. Louis?

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RIP Marvin Barnes

rimrocker Contributing Member

rimrocker Contributing Member

rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

A_3PO Member

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