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articles : No Let Up for Barr In an Up-Down Season
 No Let Up for Barr
In an Up-Down Season
For the superstars, there is security in pro basketball. The no cut contracts, the big money, the knowledge that regardless of trades and waivers and franchise shifts and mergers, etc., they will be playing basketball.
But there is, as always, another side to the coin. There is Mike Barr's side. A valuable member of any team, a player who loves to play, a guy whose hard work helps offset limited abilities.
For players such as Mike Barr, there is little security, the money isn't big, and perhaps worst of all he finds himself too long on the bench.
"It's really been an up-and-down year for me," admits the quiet-spoken four-year veteran of the American Basketball Association. "It's been a year similar to the one in Virginia my second season in the league when I was sitting on the bench for long stretches."
"I got to play a lot early this year, and I was really looking forward to a good season. But then a lot of things happened…new players coming in, a coaching change. There was a lot of talk that I would be waived."
"It bothered me not knowing if I'd be here. At one point I felt I had to come up with a few good games or I was gone. You start pressing. It's certainly a lot easier playing with a no cut contract. You don't have to worry; you can concentrate on just playing basketball."
Right now, Mike Barr is seeing a great deal of playing time, and making the most of it as an important man off the bench who sparks the club. After playing only a total of nine minutes in the previous seven games, he has averaged 22 minutes of play in the last seven contests. In that time, he has shot 18 of 35 from the field, grabbed 20 rebounds, averaged four assists a game and almost six points. But just as important as the statistics:
"The coach expects me to play good defense, handle the ball and set the tempo of the game," Barr explains. "He expects me to handle the ball on the fast break, to move the ball and get everybody involved in the play."
"It just feels nice to be involved again, to be contributing."
In his years as a pro, the 6-3 guard has done much more contributing than anyone thought he would when he came out of Duquense in 1972, an unknown. He signed with Virginia, and through hard work won himself a part time starting job, averaging as much as nine points a game his rookie year. But his playing time was cut the following season, and finally he was part of a multi-player trade that sent him to Memphis.
From Memphis, it was on to St. Louis as a free agent early in the 1974-75 season, and again through hard work he made himself a valuable member of the ball club, averaging 5.6 points and about three assists a game in about 25 minutes of action.
This season, his playing time is down to about 18 minutes a game, but he still shoots almost 50 per cent from the field, 85 per cent from the free throw line, get three assists a game and 5.3 points.
"I'm just trying to get out of the shadows of being stamped a marginal player," he says, "at least until I get old - that might be in two years, the way I'm going. It's been a tough season that way."
"I don't get discouraged easy, but it's been an over-all frustration. the money is not so important, but I like to enjoy what I'm doing. I like to play."
"It bothers my wife (Valerie) a little more than me, and I guess we could sit around and make it worse than it is, but we don't. Sure, we trade sour grapes every now and then, but not often."
"But, it is rough on her sometimes. She really gets into the games, but she enjoys them much more when I'm playing. So do I. But over-all, we've had it pretty good. St. Louis has been good to us. We've enjoyed it here."
(This article appeared originally in a Spirits of St. Louis Official Program, March 10, 1976.)
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