The Jim Ard Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, May 2nd, 2005
For
the 1970-71 season, owner Roy Boe acquired superstar and future Hall-of-Famer
Rick Barry from
the Virginia Squires. Please tell me about Mr. Barry; what was it like to play
with him, and what did his presence mean in terms of the Nets franchise?
It
was very interesting playing for the Nets that season. We had Rick Barry – he
was supposed to play for Virginia, but he refused, stating that he would not
play for the Virginia Squires. So, when he arrived in New York, I wonder what
we’ve gotten ourselves into with this guy. He was known to be so over-the-top,
and so vocal, that I wasn’t sure that he would fit in.
Well, when Rick arrived, Lou asked me to work with him after practice. We went
to a local playground for two straight weeks, immediately after practice, and
worked on our shooting and our defense. He was such an unbelievable shooter.
He could hit from anywhere, and with consistency. Those one-on-one practice
sessions really helped both of us, and it didn’t take me long to realize that
Rick wasn’t the arrogant star that the press had written about. That’s not to
say that he didn’t have a lot of confidence in himself. He had enough ego for
three basketball teams. He definitely spoke his mind. But away from the game
he was a decent guy.
During
the 1972 ABA Playoffs, the Nets pulled off a huge first round upset of the
mighty Kentucky Colonels. Please take me back to that series. What stands
out after all of these years?
That
was a special season for us. We signed John Roche, who had been drafted by
Kentucky, and who had been a three-time All-American at South Carolina and
the MVP of the Atlantic Coast Conference. We signed [Tom] Trooper
Washington. He wasn’t a big guy, maybe 6’7”, but he always established
great position underneath the glass. I think he averaged close to ten
rebounds per game that season. And Rick managed to stay healthy the entire
season, which was a huge advantage for us. He finished the season just
behind Charlie Scott for the ABA scoring title. We also had the first
winning season in team history. So, we had a lot of momentum going into the
playoffs. We felt confident that we could compete against Kentucky, even
though we’d only won 44 games compared to their 68. We weren’t intimidated.
The first two games of that series were in Louisville. We went into their
place, which was rocking, and we won both games. Rick scored 50 points in
the series opener – the Colonels tried everything, but they just couldn’t
stop him from scoring that night. They kept applying more and more
pressure, forcing Rick to take shots farther from the basket, but it didn’t
matter. He just kept draining them. He was too much for Kentucky to
handle, and that gave us a great mental edge. We played loose. Kentucky
played tight.
We shut them down in the first half of Game 2 – I think we held them to 34
points. Rick and John played great ball. We won that game decisively. The
best thing was that no one gave us a chance to win a game in the series, and
we left Louisville up 2-0. We split games in New York, and then lost Game 5
back in Louisville. That sent the series to Nassau Coliseum for Game 6. We
were pumped up. The crowd was deafening. We knew we didn’t want to play
Game 7 back in Kentucky, so we went out on the court and played
aggressively. It was an unbelievable win for us.
