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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 12:54:34 GMT -5
Post by 78friar on Sept 8, 2014 12:54:34 GMT -5
Being reported by KMac that Marvin Barnes has passed away.
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 13:00:30 GMT -5
Post by johnnypc on Sept 8, 2014 13:00:30 GMT -5
Marvin sure had his demons, but he will always be our Marvin.
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Post by friars15 on Sept 8, 2014 13:03:45 GMT -5
Very sad day Bad News was truly a legend
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 13:13:13 GMT -5
Post by TheInfoMan on Sept 8, 2014 13:13:13 GMT -5
May he rest in peace.
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 14:11:57 GMT -5
dex likes this
Post by Rock on Sept 8, 2014 14:11:57 GMT -5
A little tribute of quotes and story's about Marvin Barnes, who passed away today. RIP Marvin.
Gene Littles: "One time Marvin was late for practice in training camp. Bob MacKinnon asked him why he was late and Marvin said," I lost my car in a lot downtown." MacKinnion said, "What kind of car is it?" Marvin said, "A Bentley." There couldn't have been 3 Bentleys in all of St. Louis. A blind man could pick out a Bentley in a parking lot."
Bob Costas: " In my mind, the symbol of the Spirits will always be Marvin Barnes tooling down the street in his Rolls-Royce. He'd spot some kids at the corner, stop and pick them up and drive them in that big car to an ice cream stand, where he'd treat them, then drive them home. He felt like the Pied Piper, and he was nothing more than a big kid himself. But this was the same Marvin Barnes who must have missed 100 personal appearances in his 2 years-everything form lunches to charity events to boys clubs. He was constantly giving away tennis shoes and shirts to kids on the street."
Rudy Martzke:" Before the 1st game in which Marvin played Caldwell Jones, someone told Marvin that Caldwell was a great defensive player. Apparently Marvin want to show that no one could stop him, because he went out and took Jones apart for something like 51 points and 30 rebounds. He looked like the best player ever to wear a uniform that night."
Bob Costas: Marvin had a great night against San Diego one night. He scores 48 points. After the game I saw him in the dressing room and started giving me his State of the Spirits speech. He told me, " Bro, you know what's wrong with this team? We don't have any team play. We don't care about each other. I thought, "Maybe Marvin is starting to see what the problem is-this team has no unity." Then Marvin continued, "Let me give you an example. Tonight, I had 48 points with 2 minutes to go. Did anybody pass me the ball so I could get 50? Huh? No, they just kept the ball to themselves and I got stuck at 48. Stuff like that; that's what's wrong with these guys." The mental world of Marvin Barnes was a bizarre place. Marvin never really had an Afro. The players called him "BB", because his head was supposedly as small as a BB.
Don Chaney: One day, Marvin came into the dressing room with a 9-millimeter gun. He started pointing it at people and guys were hitting the floor. We figured he had finally freaked out, but he was just messing around. He didn't have a magazine in the gun. I don't know how many times I saw him stay out all night get about an hour's sleep and the score 35 points. His pregame meal usually was hamburgers, hot dogs, and Twinkies."
Rod Thorn: Marvin showed up for those playoffs. He showed what a great talent he was. But even then, I head a story that before one of the playoff games, Marvin ate a huge helping of nacho chips in the dressing room while he was changing into his uniform. Most guys would throw up doing that, but he went out and played like King Kong against us.
Bob Costas: Very early in Marvin's rookie year, a story came out about him having 13 telephones in his six-room condo. It wasn't true, as it turned out, but suddenly, "13 telephones" became the watchword for Marvin.
Warner Fusselle: I once had Marvin on a postgame show and I asked him about the 13 phones. He said, "No man, I ain't got no 13 phones. :let's see, I got one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, two in the bedroom..." He named about 7 different places that had phones. By then, we both were laughing so hard that we had to stop."
Bob Costas: " Making airplanes just about killed Marvin. I'm trying to remember a morning flight where Marvin was on the plane. There were few-very, very few. In the Spirits' two years, they would take an 8 A.M. flight the morning of the game to Kentucky. There must have been 15 of those flights in 2 years. And I know for a fact Marvin never made one. Not a single one. It also was just a given that he'd miss the 11 A.M. shoot around in Kentucky. Once, he got the itinerary for that trip and noticed that the flight was exactly one hour. Because of the change of time zones, our return flight would leave Louisville at 8 A.M. and arrive in St. Louis at 7:59. Marvin looked at that and announced, " I ain't going' on no time machine. I ain't takin' no flight that takes me back in time."
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The classic Marvin Barnes story came when they played a game in New York and the next day they had a game at Norfolk. The Spirits had an early-morning flight out of LaGuardia and, naturally, Marvin wasn't there.
Bob MacKinnon: Next, I called Marvin and said," Marvin, if you don't get to the game, I'm gonna have to suspend you. I'm not kidding this time." Marvin said, "Don't worry man." Then he hung up.
Rudy Martzke: About three in the afternoon, I got a call from MacKinnon. He said that Marvin missed the 9 AM., the 11 A.M. and the 1 P.M. flights to Norfolk. He hadn't heard from Marvin and figured there was no way Marvin would make the game.
Bob Costas: When Marvin finally got to LaGuardia, he found that all the flights to Norfolk were gone, and he was in real trouble. He started explaining his plight to some people and was told that the only way he could get to Norfolk was to charter a plane. So he cut a deal and got a private plane to take him to Norfolk. The plane landed and Marvin got a cab to rush him to the arena. About 10 minutes before the game, Bob MacKinnon was at the blackboard talking strategy, especially what they would do without Marvin that night. There were some double doors at the back of the dressing room and Marvin burst through the doors wearing a huge grin and proclaimed, "Boys, game time is on time."
Steve Jones: Marvin was wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and his floor length, $10,000 mink coat. He had a bag of McDonald's hamburgers and fries with him. Then he proclaimed," Have no fear, BB is here." He opened the coat, and underneath he was wearing his Spirits uniform.
Bob Costas: MacKinnon didn't stat Marvin that night, but he put him late in the first quarter and Marvin ended up with 43 points and 19 rebounds. The funny thing was that late in the first half, the pilot of the charter flight appeared by the Spirits/ huddle. He wanted to be paid right now and he wasn't about to trust Marvin to send him a check through the mail. So Marvin sent his trainer in to the dressing room to get his checkbook. During the next time-out, while everyone else was huddled around MacKinnon, Marvin was standing up with sweat pouring off his face and saying," Hey, man who should I write this check out to?" He wrote the pilot a check right in the middle of the game."
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 14:44:38 GMT -5
Post by dmac80 on Sept 8, 2014 14:44:38 GMT -5
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 15:21:53 GMT -5
Post by mainefriar on Sept 8, 2014 15:21:53 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these, Rock. There is nothing better than humor to help cope with sadness. I have always appreciated what Marvin brought to PC basketball. I have also been saddened to hear of the struggles he has had as an adult. RIP # 24
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Post by Rock on Sept 8, 2014 17:07:18 GMT -5
Glad to do it maine. I loved Marvin. A very genuine and loving guy in my experience. The ultimate "could have been" athlete.
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Marvin
Sept 8, 2014 21:07:51 GMT -5
Post by pc1971 on Sept 8, 2014 21:07:51 GMT -5
Sad news.
Marvin had his demons.May he rest in peace.But,once a Friar,always a Friar.
He was a Frosh my Senior year.Back then that meant he had to play freshman team ball, not varsity.An all timer.
Rock,thanks for sharing the stories.
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Marvin
Sept 9, 2014 4:45:43 GMT -5
Post by Free Weyinmi on Sept 9, 2014 4:45:43 GMT -5
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Marvin
Sept 9, 2014 8:01:59 GMT -5
Post by wtm97 on Sept 9, 2014 8:01:59 GMT -5
Link previously posted - here is the full article... www.providencejournal.com/sports/content/20140908-pc-basketball-great-marvin-barnes-dead-at-62.ecePC basketball great Marvin Barnes dead at 62
Published: September 08, 2014 01:40 PM By Kevin McNamara kmcnamar@providencejournal.com PROVIDENCE – Marvin Barnes, the greatest basketball big man ever from Rhode Island, has died. Barnes, 62, died at a home in Providence, according to one of his dearest friends and old Providence College teammate Kevin Stacom. Stacom said he had been in touch with Barnes’ family earlier today. Related Gallery: PC basketball great Marvin Barnes dead at 62 Bill Reynolds: The “News” was never dull with Marvin Barnes Barnes was a high school star at Central High and then went on to an All-American career at Providence College, capped by leading the Friars to the 1973 Final Four. Barnes, Stacom and point guard wizard Ernie DiGregorio formed the core of what is considered the greatest team in Rhode Island college basketball history. Barnes struggled with substance abuse in what was a shortened professional career and once his basketball days ended. Stacom said he saw Barnes about 10 days ago at a local restaurant and knew his friend was not feeling well. “He struggled with his demons but he was a great friend,” Stacom said. “He was a great talent and a great teammate but most of all he was our friend.” Barnes was a charismatic, and often troubled, star both on and off the court. He first caused waves as a teenager in South Providence when he was with a group of his friends who tried to commandeer a city bus. They didn’t get very far, mainly because Barnes was wearing his Central letterman’s jacket with his name embroidered on the chest. At Providence College, the 6-8 forward was an instant smash. After dominating on the freshman team in 1971, he teammed with North Providence’s DiGregorio for two remarkable seasons. In 1972, the sophomore big man averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds for a 21-win team. Towards the end of that season, Barnes was involved in an altercation with teammate Larry Ketvirtis where he wielded a tire iron. Barnes later pled guilty to assault and was placed on probation. He remained at PC and with the addition of Stacom the Friars enjoyed their best-ever season in 1972-73. Barnes averaged 18 points and 19 rebounds and the Friars rolled to the Final Four where they faced Memphis State. With DiGregorio and Barnes shining, PC went out to a double-digit lead but Barnes twisted his knee snaring a rebound. Without their big man, the Friars couldn’t keep Memphis off the boards and ended up losing, 98-85. Barnes was a honorable mention All-America as a junior but as a senior he established himself as one of the elite players in the country while averaging 22 points and 18.7 rebounds a game. PC rolled to a 28-4 season with Barnes and Stacom as seniors and was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by David Thompson and North Carolina State on the Wolfpack’s home floor in Raleigh. Barnes was the second overall pick of the 1974 NBA draft, behind only UCLA’s Bill Walton. But Barnes eschewed the NBA for the rival American Basketball Association and the Spirits of St. Louis. Barnes dominated in the ABA, averaging double figures in scoring (24.0 ppg) and rebounding (15.6 rpg). But just a month into the season, Barnes suddenly left the team. His location was a mystery, but after a few days the Spirits discovered that Barnes was in Dayton, Ohio at a pool tournament. He returned to the team and complained about his contract but the team’s owners, Ozzie and Daniel Silna, smoothed things over and became lifelong benefactors of Barnes. Barnes moved to the NBA’s Detroit Pistons in 1976-77 and played for three other NBA teams, including 38 games with the Boston Celtics in the 1978-79 season. Barnes’ career came to a premature end in 1980 after what he would later describe as wide-spread drug use throughout his career.
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Marvin
Sept 9, 2014 9:15:11 GMT -5
dex likes this
Post by craigl79 on Sept 9, 2014 9:15:11 GMT -5
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Marvin
Sept 9, 2014 10:24:22 GMT -5
dex likes this
Post by oaklawnbob on Sept 9, 2014 10:24:22 GMT -5
The civic center was the place to be for PC games back then. The place was really rockin with that team.
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Marvin
Sept 9, 2014 16:06:45 GMT -5
Post by dex on Sept 9, 2014 16:06:45 GMT -5
Ernie Kevin and Sonar stayed true to the end.
BY KEVIN MCNAMARA Journal Sports Writer kmcnamar@providencejournal.com
PROVIDENCE - Through all the ups, downs, twists and turns of Marvin Barnes' mercurial life, those closest to him always made sure to say a prayer for their friend.
On Monday those thoughts surfaced again when the Providence College basketball community learned that Barnes, 62, had died at a home in Providence. Friends who had seen Barnes recently say they were very concerned about the health of a man who had battled drug addiction for years. There were no other details available.
Kevin Stacom, who along with Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio formed the engine of PC's greatest-ever team in 1973, said he saw Barnes about 10 days ago at a restaurant and knew his friend was not feeling well.
"He struggled with his demons but he was a great friend," Stacom said. "He was a great talent and a great teammate but most of all he was our friend."
DiGregorio, the North Providence ball-handling wizard who'll be forever linked with the big man from South Providence, couldn't speak when contacted Monday. "I'm shocked and very sad with losing my great friend. Words can't express my sorrow," DiGregorio wrote in a text message.
Funeral plans for Barnes were incomplete as of Monday night.
Barnes grew up on Providence's South Side and is known as the greatest basketball talent the city ever produced. He led Central High to multiple state titles and was the spark that made coach Dave Gavitt's Friar teams light up the brand new Providence Civic Center in 1973 and '74. The 6-foot-9 All-American moved on to a misguided professional career where he mixed superlative play as the ABA's Rookie of the Year in St. Louis with disastrous self-implosion marked by periods of drug use. After playing for five teams in six seasons, Barnes' pro career was over by 1980.
" Marvin is one of the greatest college players to ever play," said Al Skinner, the former University of Rhode Island coach and a fierce rival while a star at the University of Massachusetts. "Ernie was outstanding but Marvin handled all the business in the front court for that team. He could have been one of the top 50 players in NBA history if he had the discipline all great players need to have."
But Barnes also owned a dark side away from the bright lights, one that earned him the nickname "Bad News" or simply "News." That legend of Marvin Barnes began as a teenager in South Providence when he and a group of friends tried to commandeer a city bus. They didn't get very far, mainly because Barnes was wearing his Central letterman's jacket with his name on the chest.
When he arrived at PC, Barnes was an instant hit. After dominating on the freshman team in 1971, he teammed with DiGregorio for two remarkable seasons. In 1972, the sophomore big man averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds for a 21-win team. In a practice leading up to the '72-73 season, Barnes had two teeth loosened by a stray elbow from teammate Larry Ketvirtis. Barnes later confronted Ketvirtis outside Raymond Hall cafeteria and struck him with what Ketvirtis called a tire iron. Barnes disputed that but later pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and remained on the team.
With the addition of Stacom, the '73 Friars took the city and state on a basketball joy ride that ended with a trip to the Final Four. With DiGregorio and Barnes shining, PC shot out to a double-digit lead over Memphis State but when Barnes twisted his knee snaring a rebound, the Friars' hopes were crushed. Without their big man, PC couldn't keep Memphis off the boards and ended up losing, 98-85.
Barnes earned honorable mention All-America honors as a junior and without Ernie D he exploded as a senior into one of the elite players in the country and led PC to a 28-4 record. He averaged 22 points and 18.7 rebounds a game, a total no college player has eclipsed since.
"I was an 18-year-old and Marvin was a senior and there was nothing like playing with him," said Joe Hassett, a freshman on the 1974 team. "We played one game at St. Bonaventure and we're down one and Marvin is at the free throw line and the place is going crazy. He makes the shots for the win and grabs me and says "those morons actually thought they were going to win?"
Barnes was the second overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft, behind only UCLA's Bill Walton. But Barnes eschewed the NBA for the rival American Basketball Association and showed up for the signing of his $2.5 million contract with the Spirits of St. Louis wearing a construction worker's hard hat. Barnes dominated in the ABA, averaging double figures in scoring (24.1 per game) and rebounding (13.4 per game) in his two years but seemingly made constant news for bizarre behavior. Just a month into his career, he mysteriously left the team and turned up in a Dayton, Ohio, pool hall. He said he was miffed about his new contract.
He eventually returned but the tales had only just begun. There's the one about the Spirits getting set to depart on a flight from Louisville at 8 a.m. that would get into St. Louis at 7:56. After one look at his ticket, Barnes exclaimed "I ain't getting on no time machine," and promptly rented a car for the trip home.
Barnes once missed a flight to Virginia because he overslept. No worries. He chartered a plane instead, arrived at the game in his mink coat and scored 43 points.
But the fast lane caught up with Barnes. In 1976, he was arrested for carrying an unloaded pistol at the Detroit airport. That violated his probation from the Ketvirtis assault and sent him to the ACI in Cranston for 152 days. He moved on to the NBA's Detroit Pistons and three other NBA teams, including 38 games with the Boston Celtics in the 1978-79 season. But by that time Barnes was a shell of himself. He later recounted a game where he sat on the end of the bench with a towel over his head snorting cocaine.
Barnes lived in San Diego, Houston and Virginia for the next 20 years but spent the last dozen or so with family and friends in the Providence area. With the help of the former owners of the Spirits of St. Louis, Barnes ran the Rebound Foundation where he spoke to youth groups about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. PC retired Barnes' jersey in 2008 and he was a frequent visitor to the Friar athletic department.
Yet trouble followed Barnes into his final years, too. In 2007 he was arrested for cocaine possession. In 2012 he was charged with soliciting a 17-year-old for sex at a café in Cranston. Barnes called it "a classic case of getting set up," but the case remained pending and was set to go to trial in R.I. Superior Court this fall.
Barnes' closest friends and former teammates only hope to remember the dynamic big man who was always the life of the party.
"We've all had our ups and downs but Marvin is what he always was, a big kid," said Stacom. "He'll always be our teammate and our friend."
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Marvin
Sept 10, 2014 8:24:05 GMT -5
Post by wtm97 on Sept 10, 2014 8:24:05 GMT -5
NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY 9-9-14Marvin Barnes, Enigmatic Basketball Player, Dies at 62
By BRUCE WEBER Marvin Barnes in 1976. Like Muhammad Ali, he wrote poetry. Credit Larry C. Morris/The New York Times
Marvin Barnes, one of basketball’s most talented and defiantly self-indulgent players, whose career dissolved in a haze of drugs and alcohol, died on Monday in Providence, R.I. He was 62. The death was confirmed by Kevin Stacom, a scout for the Dallas Mavericks, who was a teammate of Barnes’s on the Providence College team that reached the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. tournament in 1973. Barnes, who had been drug-free for several years, had recently succumbed to his addiction again, Stacom said. A first-team all-American at Providence who led the nation in rebounding in his senior year, the 1973-74 season, Barnes went on to play two seasons for the Spirits of St. Louis in the American Basketball Association and then four in the National Basketball Association after the rival leagues merged in 1976. On the court, he could be close to unstoppable. A sinewy 6 feet 8 (or 6 feet 9, depending on the source) and somewhere between 210 and 230 pounds, he played power forward or center. A scorer as well as a ferocious rebounder, he was swift afoot, especially for a big man, with sure, quick hands, a potent move to the basket, and a sweet, feathery jump shot. Rookie of the year in the A.B.A. in 1974-75, Barnes averaged more than 24 points and more than 13 rebounds a game in his two seasons in St. Louis. In the 1975 playoffs, he scored 41 and 37 points in the first two games against the New York Nets, who were led by Julius Erving (a.k.a. Dr. J), and averaged more than 30 points a game in two playoff series. “The truth is that there were many nights, even when Dr. J was in the game, when the best player on the floor was Marvin Barnes,” the veteran sportscaster Bob Costas, whose first job out of college was announcing Spirits games on the radio, said in “Free Spirits,” a 2013 television documentary about the team. But from the start, Barnes was one of sport’s most flamboyant problem children; his nickname, given by a teammate, was Bad News. By his admission, he started using drugs in his second season in the pros, and from then on his skills diminished and his life spiraled downward. From 1976 to 1980 he played for four N.B.A. teams, averaging 9.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He admitted snorting cocaine on the bench as a member of the Boston Celtics. After leaving the game, he spent many years in bad shape, reportedly living in California, Texas and Virginia, sometimes homeless, sometimes in prison. Like Muhammad Ali, to whom he was sometimes compared, he was a joyous braggart who promoted his great gifts and then proved he had them. Like Ali, he wrote poems to his opponents — “There once was a doctor named Erving/Whose slam dunks were especially unnerving” — and like Ali, he had the kind of charisma that made more friends than enemies, even among those he disappointed. “He’s a nice guy, a sweet guy, everybody likes him,” Donald Schupak, an owner of the Spirits, said in an interview with The New York Times in 1976. “He’s just totally unreliable. He’s probably in the top five players in basketball, talent-wise. In terms of value to a team, he’s probably in the bottom 10 percent.” Both he and Ali had renegade spirits, but unlike Ali’s, Barnes’s could be both selfish and reckless. From high school on he had run-ins with the law; in college he attacked a teammate with a tire iron, was given a probationary sentence and was later sent to prison after he was caught at an airport with an unloaded pistol in his luggage, violating the terms of his probation. At one point during his rookie season in St. Louis, suddenly unhappy with his contract, he vanished from the team, resurfacing days later at a billiard hall in Dayton, Ohio. On another occasion, after missing the Spirits’ flight from New York to Norfolk, Va., he chartered a plane, insisted the team pay the pilot, then walked into the locker room minutes before tipoff carrying a bag of hamburgers and wearing a mink coat over his uniform. Then he went out and scored more than 40 points. Marvin Jerome Barnes was born in North Kingston, R.I., on July 27, 1952, and grew up in Providence, where he attended Central High School, leading the team to state titles and becoming what The Providence Journal called “the greatest basketball talent the city ever produced.” His recklessness was also on display at a young age. As a teenager, he and some friends commandeered a city bus, and Barnes was easily caught afterward because he had been wearing his letterman’s jacket with his name stitched on the front. In 1973, he teamed with another Rhode Island basketball legend, Ernie DiGregorio, and led Providence to the N.C.A.A. tournament in St. Louis, losing to Memphis State in the national semifinal. In 1974 he was chosen in the N.B.A. draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, the second overall pick behind Bill Walton, but elected to play in the A.B.A. instead. He was married and divorced twice. His survivors include his mother, Lula Barnes, and a sister, Alfreda L. Barnes-Robinson. He returned to Providence sometime after 2000 and, with the support of former owners of the Spirits, ran the Rebound Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing guidance for wayward youths. In “Free Spirits,” he explained his attitude as a young man. “I got introduced to some drug dealers and I got real close with them,” he said. “They became like my family. I was living my fantasy, though. I always wanted to be a gangsta, a drug dealer, a pimp, a player, a hustler. I was, like, I’m gonna die young, die fast, gonna die quick, and I’m gonna have fun. That’s it.”
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