Golden State Warriors: 10 greatest free agent signings ever

#2. Rick Barry

Rick Barry began his NBA career with the San Francisco Warriors after they drafted him second overall in the 1965 Draft.

In those two seasons, Barry averaged 30.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, and won the 1966 Rookie of the Year award too.

In 1966-67, he led the league in scoring and brought the Warriors to the Finals where they lost in six games to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Following his sophomore season, however, Barry left the NBA and the Warriors to join the Oakland Oaks in the smaller, fledgling ABA.

Barry became the league’s first superstar to abandon the NBA and join the ABA, mainly because the contract the Oaks offered him was too absurd to pass on; in June of 1967, Barry signed a 3-year contract worth $500,000, and was awarded 15 percent sock in ownership of the team plus five percent of ticket sales exceeding $600,000. The deal made Barry, who had only been making $30,000/year to play for the Warriors, one of the highest-paid players in all of basketball.

After a contractual dispute between the Warriors owner, Franklin Mieuli, and the Oaks owner, Pat Boone, Barry was legally barred from playing in the ABA and was forced to return to the Warriors. Instead of returning to his former team, however, Barry decided to sit out the 1967-68 season altogether.

Following his first season with the Oaks in 1968-69, owner Pat Boone sold the team to Earl Foreman, who immediately announced a relocation to Washington, D.C. and a name change to the Capitals. Unhappy with this move and insistent that such a relocation violated his contract, Rick Barry negotiated with his old team, the San Francisco Warriors, for a 5-year deal in order to stay in the area.

But with one legal dispute after another, Barry was forced to rejoin the Capitals in Washington; after becoming more vocal about his dissatisfaction in D.C., however, Barry ultimately played out his ABA contract with the New York Nets.

Finally, in 1972, Barry returned to the now-Golden State Warriors, and picked up right where he left off.

Over the course of his final six seasons with the Warriors, he was an All-Star selection and averaged 20+ points per game in each one.

In 1975, Barry’s 30.6 points per game led the Warriors to the NBA Finals where they swept the Washington Bullets to win the organization’s second NBA title and first in almost 20 years. Barry was named the Finals MVP as well.

In his second tenure with the organization, Barry only missed seven games, showing a commitment to a team he previously proved otherwise and was a 2x selection to the All-NBA First Team as well as a 2x selection to the All-NBA Second Team.

And for his contributions in both the NBA and ABA, Barry was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame 2006.

Though Barry and the Warriors had some disputes, he ultimately showed his true loyalty to the franchise by winning a title and consistently dominating opponents.

Barry is widely recognized as one of the best Warriors players of all-time for his time in San Francisco but mainly for his tenure in Golden State.

And for that, this signing is one of the franchise’s best ever.