It’s safe to say that Golden State Warriors legend Rick Barry has seen “The Matrix.”
Or perhaps not. He’s plenty smart enough to know what the word “anomaly” means without watching the exploits of Neo, the hero of that major motion-picture franchise and “the anomaly” that fights against the bad guys.
Barry says the term, defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified,” applies to Warriors guard Stephen Curry and former NBA titan, the late and extremely great Wilt Chamberlain. Curry is poised to pass “Wilt the Stilt” on the Warriors’ all-time leading scorers list on Monday night against the Nuggets.
Here’s part of what Barry told Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“There will never be anyone like Wilt, ever again,” [Barry] said. “But I think of Curry that way as well. They are both anomalies in league history. If you play a position the way nobody else has ever played it — both of them have done that.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Barry, 77, knows all about Chamberlain. He battled the league-altering center in the 1967 NBA Finals, when his Warriors lost to Wilt’s 76ers in six games.
While the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain scored an astonishing 50.4 points per game in the 1961-62 season with the then Philadelphia Warriors using his never-before-seen height and elite athleticism, Curry changed the NBA with his previously unheard of ability from the 3-point line.
It’s a testament to the Warriors franchise that it’s poised to have these two NBA behemoths, no matter their vast difference in height, sitting atop its all-time scoring list.
Plus, Golden State has the leader of its 1975 NBA championship team in Barry, who was on the NBA’s original Top-50 players list, to comment on the two anomalies that broke the NBA in a Warriors uniform.
Curry needs just 18 points to match Chamberlain’s mark on Monday, so get your popcorn ready and enjoy the real-life show (it should be much better than “The Matrix,” and that’s saying a lot).
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