Rick Barry: Warriors fans who booed Joe Lacob are 'fools'

OAKLAND, Calif. – Outspoken Hall of Fame guard Rick Barry called a portion of Golden State Warriors fans "fools" and made other digs toward Stephen Curry, LeBron James' former teammates and the 1976 NBA champion Boston Celtics while he celebrated with his old championship team on Monday night.

"All those fools that were booing during the Chris Mullin [jersey retirement] ceremony should be writing letters to [Warriors co-owner] Joe Lacob apologizing for what they did because it worked out pretty good," said Barry, who unsuccessfully tried to calm the crowd as it booed Lacob during Mullin's ceremony on March 18, 2012.

Barry joined six of his former Golden State teammates and former coach Al Attles in celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 1975 NBA championship team on Monday night. Those Warriors swept the Washington Bullets in four games in what Barry called "the greatest upset in NBA history." It is the Warriors' lone championship in the Bay Area.

Barry's exuberance highlighted the 40th anniversary news conference prior to the Warriors' game against the Washington Wizards. Barry believes Curry and fellow All-Star teammate Klay Thompson are "the greatest shooting backcourt from distance" and that the Warriors have a "real, legitimate shot" at winning a title. Barry added that Curry could win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, but still needs to improve his game.

"He still has a little way to go as far as the passes that he chooses to make at times," Barry said of Curry. "He tries to make the great play instead of the simple play. But he's getting much better at it and his shot selection.

"But he really has become a great player. And if I had a vote for the Most Valuable Player, Steph is right there. He's been unbelievable."

On what the Warriors need to be careful of during the playoffs, Barry said: "Don't get caught up in playoff NBA beat-the-[expletive]-out-of-each-other basketball and slow down."

The Warriors were considered the favorite to win the 1976 NBA championship before falling to the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference finals. Barry believes those Warriors would have easily become back-to-back champions had they played the eventual champion Celtics in the '76 NBA Finals.

"We gave away Game 6 in Phoenix and that really hurt us because Boston would have never beaten us in that championship series," Barry said. "They didn't have anybody who could guard Jamaal [Wilkes]. [John] Havlicek couldn't guard me and he was hurt, too, in that series. So they would have been in big trouble. They really would have been."

Barry also credited his old Warriors teammates for picking up their play when he struggled. He added that James wasn't as fortunate while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers during his first stint from 2003-10.

"Great players are not going to play great all the time," Barry said. "That happened to LeBron in Cleveland. When he had those off games in some of those playoff series, his teammates didn't get the job done to get through those tough times.

"My teammates did. I sucked in Games 6 and 7 [of the 1975 West finals]."

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