Brent Barry was fortunate enough to come from a family with a rich basketball tradition. Whilst some of you kiddies might only know him as “that man who talks on NBA TV,” in fact he comes from as deep a history of basketball as any player in NBA circles. Just to recap, for those of you playing along at home:
- Brent himself won two NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs (2005 and 2007), won the 1996 NBA Slam Dunk Contest (the only white man to do so, incidentally) and also played for the Clippers, Heat, Bulls, Sonics and Rockets.
- Father Rick Barry is a Hall of Famer who combined sharp-shooting, scrappy defence, court-vision and a mean under-handed free-throw to become All-NBA 1st Team, Rookie of the Year, Scoring Leader, Championship Winner, Finals MVP, ABA All-Star, all at least once in his career. He was named one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1996.
- Brother Scooter Barry won the 1988 NCAA title with Kansas and played professionally in Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the American CBA.
- Brother Drew Barry is Georgia Tech’s all-time assists leader, played in the NBA with the Hawks, Sonics and Warriors, as well as professionally in Australia, Poland and the CBA.
- Brother Jon Barry played in the NBA with the Bucks, Warriors, Hawks, Lakers, Kings, Pistons, Nuggets and Warriors and also followed Brent’s path as a television basketball analyst.
- Step-mother Lynn Barry, current wife of Rick, was a very talented college basketball player and track-and-field star, who also used her lofty academic merits to work with the NCAA and USA Basketball in management positions.
So, yeah, you could say that Brent “Bones” Barry has a bit of a grounding in basketball. And this video from 1987 shows exactly how he was groomed to be a television basketball analyst at an early age. Brent and Drew were brought into the analysts chair, presumably being babysat by their father Rick.
