Crime in Sports - #22 - The Penniless Ghetto Cowboy Millionaire - The Excess of Marvin "Bad News" Barnes
Episode Date: June 28, 2016This week, we give you a basketball player with talent so large, that it was equalled only by his crazy. From robbing while wearing his high school jacket... with his name on it... to guns at... the airport, porn thievery, pimping, assaults, and more cocaine than you knew a man could possibly ingest. Great quotes. Pure crazy. Lessons never learned. The perfect CIS subject! Put on your fur coat, jump on a charter flight, and strut yourself onto the court, with Marvin "Bad News" Barnes!! Check us out, every Tuesday. We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman New episodes every Tuesday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Crime in Sports!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Small Town Murder Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/crimeinsportsInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: crimeinsports@gmail.comDonate on Patreon: patreon.com/crimeinsportsPayPal: paypal.me/crimeinsports See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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us we'll hang out we'll talk about every one of these idiots if you want we'll love to all the
time you want we'll have a blast but uh all right let's get into this without further ado uh this
guy is amazing yeah what a lunatic marvin barnes guys mar Marvin Barnes. If you don't know who Marvin Barnes was.
Sounds like a homeless man.
And he was at one point.
We'll get into that.
He becomes that.
He looks homeless toward the end of his life.
That name just sounds very not exciting.
Yeah, just a very blasé person.
Well, Marvin Barnes was actually the opposite of that.
This guy is, if you could put the 70s and mold it into a human
being, the decade of the 1970s,
this would be the person you'd come out with.
Just take a picture of him
and the picture he sent me
looked like, and I'm going to get you
to suck a character.
It's just every
cheesy fucking pimp outfit
that you've ever seen in a Halloween store.
Fur coat, pimp hat. With fucking leopard print in a halloween store yeah pat with fucking leopard
print somewhere this was not ironic with authority this was not ironic in any way shape or form he
was 1000 that is me and i will wear it he's incredible and also too about him i'll say ahead
of time this is probably the most talented guy we've had this is probably the guy that blew it
the most yeah of anybody.
He could have been a Hall of Fame
legend and instead
he is a fucking idiot.
We'll get into what happened.
Let's just get into it right now.
Marvin Jerome Barnes.
That's a solid name.
With Jerome in there.
It sounds tough.
It sounds like he's got a huge dick.
And he probably did, but we're not sure about...
I do not have confirmation on his character.
But I feel like he would have swung that thing around in the locker room.
I would.
Like a lasso.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he's born July 27, 1952, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
All right.
Grows up in Rhode Island, grows up in Providence.
He describes his childhood just as, quote, horrific.
Really? And won't go into real details. The only real
detail I could get out of him
was that, or I could get out of him like I
interviewed him, but that I could find on him was a
quote from him. We're going to do in their own words, earliest
ever. Right out the gate.
This explains a lot right
here. In their own words,
quote, my father was an alcoholic.
He beat my mother, he beat me.
When I was 16, I got my.22
caliber gun out and said, you ain't gonna
beat me no more. You got your gun, I got
mine, draw. Holy shit!
That's what we're dealing with.
So that's his childhood. He's a cowboy.
Yeah, he's a Rhode Island ghetto
cowboy. And he describes
it just straight ghetto upbringing.
That's all we've got for the worst
childhood ever i feel like he may be exaggerating a bit it's possible but because who the fuck
wasn't beaten you know what i mean yeah especially back then he's born in the 60s and 70s but
i grew up in the 80s i got beaten yeah apparently it was a little a little much he's a little heavy
handed apparently uh maybe so and it might have been, even. I don't want to discredit him.
I'm just saying I'd like some more proof.
Yeah.
What a dick.
But his life is proof of his upbringing, I think.
I guess, yeah, I got beaten a lot when I was a kid, but I never told anybody, fucking draw.
So maybe he is telling the truth.
He seems tough.
I never wired her to my fucking stepfather.
He grows to 6'9", 225.
Big cat.
He's a forward slash center, but man, he could move with a ball.
He's fast.
He was fast for his size.
He could move.
He could play down low.
He could get boards, blocks.
He could shoot.
He was just a great player.
He attended Central High School in Providence where they got state titles,
and he was just, you know, he was owning it.
He was called by the Providence Journal the greatest basketball talent the city ever produced
when he came out of high school.
Had some trouble right away in high school.
This guy does not.
We're not going to go through a whole lot of time in between crimes, basically.
It's like he's real consistent, this guy.
I'm into that.
Only with crime.
Nothing else in his whole life.
Well, maybe drugs.
That's good for us.
But yeah.
So in high school, while in high school, him and several other young gentlemen tried to rob a bus.
Oh, Jesus.
Rob the people on the bus.
So he's like 17.
He's going on trying to...
This is like some
cowboy shit yeah like modern day cowboy shit like they're robbing the train right yeah so
they try to rob the bus would have been fine problem is while he's robbing the bus his attire
that he chooses is his central high school state champion jacket this christ and on his letterman
on that jacket right up front on the breast pocket guess what it says
marvin god damn right it does so when they're like uh police come and say describe who robbed
you ah six foot nine gentleman i don't know but he had a central high school state champion
basketball jacket on and i believe his name was marvin does that narrow it down a little bit
anyway to 12 guys they all named marvin probably not it's probably him that's pretty
awesome that's pretty stupid that's the dumbest crime i've ever heard in my life that's the
equivalent of oj simpson walking into a uh a hotel room to rob a bunch of guys with no mask just
walking and being like yeah give me all my stuff well he had already threatened them like i'm
coming to get my shit back like he didn't think it was going to go that direction. That's so stupid. He gets to college.
I mean, he's a beast in college.
He's a beast.
Freshman year, 21.6 points per game, 15.7 rebounds.
Wow.
Killing it.
18.3 points the next year, 19 rebounds.
Finishes up with 22.1 points a game, 18.7 rebounds.
He's averaging double-doubles every game.
And that's dominant for college, especially back then,
because the ball wasn't moving like it does.
22 points a game was a lot back then, and 18 rebounds.
Slower-paced game back then.
That's some shit right there.
That's something.
He's an All-American consensus first-team All-American in 74.
He's the man.
He takes Providence to the Final Four.
Wow.
Providence, not a big powerhouse.
Have they ever been to the final four since?
I think so, yeah.
Have they?
Yeah, yeah.
A couple of times, actually.
The word Providence
doesn't sound hard
and scrabble at all.
It's weird that they would,
it's weird that a place
called Providence
would generate a nudnik.
You know,
just anybody that fucks up.
Yeah.
It's just a tiny state.
The word Providence
sounds so regal.
It does.
Like they know
which is the salad fork.
He does not know a salad fork from a salad tongue at this point in his life,
and it doesn't get any better.
He does great at college on the court.
Off the court, a couple difficulties.
We have an incident on October 10, 1972.
This is not real cool what he does here.
He attacks a teammate, Larry Ketviteris.
Okay.
Attacks him with a tire iron.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Apparently, there was a scuffle on the floor when they were at practice.
There was a loose ball that Marvin and Larry were fighting for.
Sure.
His last name sucks.
I'm calling him Larry.
Yeah.
Fuck that name.
So there's a scuffle, and apparently, Larry loosened a couple of Marvin's teeth with an elbow.
Oh, shit.
Which happens when you're scuffling for loose balls.
Now Larry was thought to be kind of a dirty player or whatever.
But, I mean, hey, it's basketball.
So anyway, after practice, Larry says a couple other guys kind of lured him out by the cafeteria outside.
Kind of got in his face and you can't be playing like that, whatever.
Marvin was there, too.
They kind of surrounded him.
He felt a little bit threatened, so he tried to walk away right he said the last thing he heard
was marvin yelling sucker which is the most 70s fucking thing you could yell at someone
and then he uh hits him and then he apparently said he he didn't know it was a tire iron but
then he looked up and saw marvin with a tire iron wow um yeah just sucker smacks him not even sucker punch yeah he walloped him good and i guess uh this charges are filed yeah
he doesn't fuck around yeah it's barnes claims self-defense uh but he eventually pleads guilty
to assault with a dangerous weapon he says he just wants to get it over with yeah and he said
he wanted to take the probation because he wasn't ever going to do anything wrong again so he was
happy to just get it over with, you know, the whole deal.
He just has a tire eye.
That's it.
It's a one-year suspended sentence, three years probation for pleading guilty.
That's amazing.
Later on, too, this Larry Ketviteris guy says that, like, it was the black athletes were kind of out to get him.
All right.
And then they say that he was trying to get Marvin suspended so he could be the starter because he was second straight to Marvin.
I mean, everything's kind of whatever.
I can believe either side, really.
Either way, Marvin hit the guy with a tire iron and admitted to it in court,
so that's a problem.
You can't be hitting teammates.
Trying to crush a dude's skull.
Yeah, you can't be doing that.
So it doesn't matter.
The leagues don't care because in 1974 he's drafted number two overall
by these Philadelphia 76ers 76 76ers don't
give a fuck right after bill walton bill walton who as you might know is a terrible announcer
for the last 20 years with that deep role and i played shut the fuck up bill wall it's shit bill
but great player yeah uh and he was drafted by portland number one uh marvin barnes number two
by philadelphia barnes says you know what? NBA can suck a dick.
Not real interested in the NBA.
Really?
I like the ABA style.
Oh, my God.
And he goes to the ABA because the ABA was making big money off of us.
Okay, they're making more money.
It was like the USFL in the 80s.
These upstart leagues would try to get the top college talent,
and they went out and tried to get Marvin Barnes.
So he gets drafted by, he gets taken by the St. Louis, the spirits of St. Louis.
All right.
Okay.
Now, there is a 30 for 30 ESPN documentary that you should just watch anyway because it's fantastic.
But especially as it pertains to this.
Because when we talk about his rookie year and some stories involved in it, a lot of it is in this documentary for the next couple minutes.
But you should check this out.
It's called Free Spirits or something, 30 for 30. Nice for 30 nice it's it's amazing but it's all about this upstart
somebody doesn't have a name fucking special not really free spirit free spirits well they were the
carolina cougars before that and they moved there gotcha and were bought by another group and they
wanted to this other group wanted to change things up they wanted this to be a flashy kind of fun
team that people would want to watch.
Marvin Barnes is a flashy, fun guy to watch play.
He's a beast on the court.
Name him after an airplane, and that'll get people out there.
Rookie year, I mean, he's a monster, too.
He gets a nice contract that he ends up blowing a lot of.
How much was his contract?
His contract's $2.1 million.
Wow.
He thinks it's over seven years, but it's actually over 14 years.
Oh, shit.
So he's all pissed off about this.
I would be, too.
He gets a $100,000 signing bonus that he blows in less than five months.
Wow.
Not even like Arch Leaster style.
Right.
He's not gambling.
He's not even doing cocaine yet.
Wow.
He hasn't done cocaine until the second year, he says.
He just pisses it away buying shit.
He's flashy.
He buys a $15,000 000 cadillac which in 1974
it's an expensive fucking car it's not like yeah that's a big flash car girlfriend wrecks it
immediately he's doing warm-ups for his first pro game murder her well this is the funny he's doing
warm-ups for his first pro game it's an an exhibition in San Antonio. And somebody comes and tells him that his car got crashed.
His girlfriend crashed his car.
He's so bummed out he only has six points that night.
He broke his heart.
Broke his heart.
After the game, made himself feel better, went out and bought a $35,000 Rolls Royce.
Holy shit.
He's like, that Cadillac wasn't up to my standards anyway.
I'm going to get it fixed, and I'm going to make that woman drive that car.
Because you know they're never the same after that.
The fucking fender hanging off of it and shit.
Fuck fixing it.
Just make her drive it the way it is.
He is great on the court, but he's such a selfish player.
He's just such a selfish player.
This is a quote to him.
Bob Costas, who you might know, obviously, the sportscaster, giant guy.
Possibly the best sportscaster in the history of sportscasting and a lot of people say just verbal diarrhea also
yeah yeah that's true either like him or you don't like him but he's a legendary sportscaster
listen fuck his politics i don't care if you believe him or not but his sportscasting second
to none of course he he sport casts everything so you could say well he that his first job out
of college was as the play-by-play man for the Spirits of St. Louis.
Oh, how about that?
So that was how Bob Costas is all over the 30 for 30 thing.
He told Bob Costas after a game on Halloween night, October 31st, 1974, in San Diego,
this is the kind of player he is, in their own words, quote,
Bro, you know what's wrong with this team?
We don't have
any team play we don't care about each other let me give you an example tonight i had 48 points
with two 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 on 48 jesus christ there's the problem with this team because
they're so selfish they won't let me get 50 points they're selfish, they won't let me get 50 points. They're so selfish, they won't let me be selfish.
They won't let me take all the shots.
And he called him bro.
That's awesome.
Yeah, just listen here a little bit.
Costas looked like he was 12 back then.
He probably was.
I saw pictures of him at a college.
He's a midget, first of all.
When I was a kid, I thought he was too young to be calling sports.
This is 15 years before that.
No shit.
The kind of guy he is at this point,
there's a flight from Louisville to St. Louis.
This is a famous story, and it's true.
It's confirmed by multiple sources.
It's silly as shit.
Flight from Louisville to St. Louis.
Now, you cross the time zone there,
going west, and you lose an hour.
It's an 8 a.m. flight leaving Louisville,
landing at 7.56 in St. Louisis i can't wait to hear he said quote
i ain't getting in no time machine and rented a car and fucking drove to st louis
he was serious he was dead saying getting in no time machine fuck that so serious he rented a car
to drive and drove that time machine you guys are crazy man. Unreal. So that's the type of guy
we're dealing with here.
Awesome.
Now, rookie year in November.
November 20th, 1974.
This is when things start to turn.
He's so fucking dumb.
He's so amazing, this guy.
And he only gets dumber
as time goes on.
But dumber in like a smart, fun...
Like, I want to spend time
with this guy for a little while.
Not too long, as we'll see,
because bad things will happen to you.
Just for one story of stupidity.
It's incredible.
That I can have forever.
Now, November 20th, the season's not even half over.
He's already had a 48.30 rebound game in his rookie year in the first couple months.
30 rebounds in a game.
In a game.
That's just dominating.
That's like every ball that doesn't go in, he's grabbing.
I'm taking this game.
That's incredible.
It's mine.
So at this point, there's a guy, now here comes a good,
now first of all, Marvin Barnes, I haven't said it yet,
at this point his nickname is Bad News.
Awesome.
They call him Marvin Bad News Barnes.
So he's got a great nickname.
And he didn't give it to himself either. That's awesome. So he's not the girl of the, and it's Bad News Barnes. So he's got a great nickname. And he didn't give it to himself either.
That's awesome.
So he's not the guy with the...
That's why it's a good nickname.
And it's Bad News.
I'm Bad News Barnes, motherfucker.
Like, that's awesome.
I want to be called Bad News Petrigallo.
Like, what the...
Bad News Wissman.
Wouldn't that be great?
So solid.
So here comes a guy with a terrible nickname.
A guy named Pogo Joe Caldwell.
What the fuck?
Pogo Joe, because he jumped like a kangaroo.
Unbelievable.
This is one of those guys, and if you've, nowadays you don't see guys with like the
Homer Simpson horseshoe bald in the NBA.
Yeah.
They get plugs, these guys.
Like they're under, back in the 70s, there was just guys with like a complete bald, like
a Carl Winslow going on.
You're like, what the fuck is this? Why is that dude red? Yeah, that Winslow going on. You're like,
what the fuck is that?
Yeah,
that dude looks 60 out there.
He looks like he has money.
This guy was one of those.
Pogo Joe Caldwell
in a mustache.
Yeah.
He looked like some
60-year-old man out there.
Moses Malone had one too,
eventually.
He was known,
yeah,
exactly.
He was known as a locker room lawyer,
which means he's telling it.
He's a veteran
and he stirs the shit with people.
They don't give you,
they're screwing you over, man.
You need to get this better with your contract.
He said he looked over his contract.
Some dickhead player named Pogo Joe.
He's taking his advice from him
and advised him to dump his agent.
His agent at the time was named Bob Wolf
and hire a guy named Marshall Boyer,
an agent named Marshall Boyer.
So Marvin does this and goes AWOL from the team.
Just disappears.
Really?
Yeah, goes missing.
Fires the agent
and then just disappears.
And it's in all the newspapers.
Where's Marvin?
Marvin's missing.
Where the hell's Marvin?
Is Marvin dead?
Are we going to find Marvin
in a river?
I mean, like,
what the hell happened to Marvin?
What is he doing?
He is holding out.
He's trying to hold out.
So his agent told him
to hold out.
His new agent, Boyer.
Woody Page, who you might know
as a current guy,
he's on ESPN shows.
He'd be on the show where they all argue in boxes.
Whatever the fuck that is.
Around the Horn.
He's the one from Denver, actually.
He's such a heartbreak story.
Marvin Barnes, he says.
This is a great quote from him.
He represents my town. He writes. Marvin Barnes, he says. This is a great quote from him. I hate that he represents my town.
Yeah.
He writes, quote,
Marvin Barnes is a free spirit.
In fact, the spirits of St. Louis Center
is so free, no one knows where he is.
He's just gone.
That's a great line.
Barnes is putting out,
he's putting out stories.
He's calling himself, quote,
a penniless millionaire.
Wow.
And said he was hoodwinked by his contracts.
That's one of my favorite words
hoodwinked
and yeah
so like I said
he thought it was
for seven years
it was 14
he gets the money
is that when he found out
I think when Pogo Joe
looked over the contract
he's like
you gotta play 14 years
to get that shit
it was probably one of those
where Marvin was like
why is my check so small
and Pogo Joe said
let me look at your contract
they fucked you man
you may want to go
get a tire iron and beat somebody over the head is there like a maybe They fucked you, man. You may want to go get a tire iron
and beat somebody over the head.
Isn't there like maybe
a white backup center
you want to crack in the ear
with a tire iron possibly?
At this point he said
he'd quote,
rather work in a factory
than play for less than
a million dollars.
Wow.
So he's tripping at this point.
Marvin is losing his mind.
Out of his mind.
Out of his mind.
He stays with Boyer,
his agent here,
for six days
and then dumps him
and hires a guy, hires Walt Frazier,
Clyde Walt Frazier is one of the nuttiest people ever, and Billy Cunningham, who's another
old basketball player.
They were good stars back then.
Hires their agent, Erwin Wiener, who sounds like a guy you want representing your affairs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I want Erwin Wiener representing my shit.
Sounds like that guy's got, he knows his shit.
He knows about money.
He's very familiar.
He's got a briefcase. He's very familiar. He's got a briefcase.
He's got glasses.
He's got patches on his elbow.
Also horseshoe hair.
Horseshoe hair.
It's messed up around.
He looks like he's got
Bernie Sanders hair.
He just doesn't care
because he's so concerned.
A couple of strays on his forehead
where hair used to be.
So concerned with your money
and your affairs.
He has no time to put.
No time.
No time.
I am Erwin Weiner,
sports agent.
I don't have time for this shit.
Okay, moving on on he doesn't even
smoke the half the half smoked cigar that's in his mouth he just hangs on to it it doesn't he
doesn't have time to take it out and put it on away because he's so busy worrying about getting
you all your money so a week after this erwin wiener comes through marvin's back on the court
you knew erwin would get the job done didn't you you? Erwin Wiener. I love him.
So Bob Costas says of him at this point, and Costas knows his basketball,
and this is being said now or a few years ago in this documentary,
not from the 70s.
He said, quote, the truth is that there were many nights,
even when Dr. J was in the game, that the best player on the floor was Marvin Barnes.
Unbelievable. So that's saying some shit because Dr. J, Julius Irving,
I don't care if you know basketball or not,
you've heard of Dr. J.
Absolutely.
He's a Babe Ruth of Wayne Gretzky.
He's not numbers-wise maybe,
but in name recognition.
Maybe the biggest Philadelphia name ever.
Yeah, and the Nets,
and he got around.
He was a badass.
So that's what Costas said about him.
Barnes said of himself at this point, quote, quote, that kind of Negro.
That's just what he was all about, man.
I'm just that kind of Negro.
That's out of his mouth.
I don't know.
That's fantastic.
So he wins Rookie of the Year in 74, even after disappearing.
Unbelievable.
That's how dominant, over Moses Malone, too.
Unbelievable.
Moses Malone was second in the voting. Wow. So, I dominant, over Moses Malone, too. Unbelievable. Moses Malone was second in the voting.
Wow.
So, I mean, that's how badass he is.
Rookie year, he's 24 points, 15.6 rebounds a game.
1.8 blocks, too, just for good measure.
Killing it.
Yeah.
Killing it.
I mean, he's nasty.
Almost two blocks a game.
His second year in St. Louis, I mean, same thing.
75, 76, 24.1 points a game, 10.8 rebounds, 2.0 blocks. The leader.
He's killing it. He's your guy, yeah. And on the court, I mean, he has some amazing performances.
I mean, they go head up with Dr. J in the playoffs, and he battles him step for step. I mean,
Barnes was nasty. I mean, apart from Wilt Chamberlain, back then there weren't that many
big guys that were really dominating and running the Russells You had your Bill Russells. You had your Kurt.
You had your Robert Parrish.
He wasn't a real offensive force, Bill Russell defenses.
You had your Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
But they aren't grabbing boards like that, too.
I mean, he was a monster.
He could have been a monster.
He was amazing.
So, Harry Weltman, president of St. Louis here at this time, who, his hair is not so
silver.
We'll get to more silver men than this.
Because he's kind of mad at Barnes.
He says, quote,
it's a situation of going from boyhood to manhood,
and the adjustment has been extremely difficult for Marvin.
So that says something there.
He's got some problems.
In response to this, Marvin says, in their own words,
quote, I'm a basketball player, not a monk.
I play the women i play the
clothes i play the cars i play everything i can that is good there's players and there's playees
the playees are the ones that get played by the players i'm a player end quote the 70s in a human
he's the original snoop dogg that's so great amazing he's every rapper should look at him
you know from like every 90 Every rapper should look at him.
Every 90s rapper, they looked at him and were like, yeah, Marvin Barnes is the guy I've got to be.
That's who you've got to embody.
So now, November 1975, right in the middle of the 75-76 season here, where he's having a good year,
the Larry Ketviteris comes back.
Uh-oh.
He sues Marvin Barnes for a million and a half dollars.
Of course he does.
For the 72 assault. Because he's got money now.
Now he's got money.
This trial, he says that the black athletes were out to get him,
and it turns into a weird racial thing.
And they also cross-examine him.
They say, would you have got more playing time if Marvin was suspended?
And he was like, I guess I would.
And so that was kind of...
Awesome.
So it kind of goes there.
It turns out November 27th, a judgment settlement comes in.
They judge for Larry Kipeteris, obviously.
He gets crushed in the head.
He pled guilty to court to Marvin Barnes.
Right.
That's kind of a tough one.
Yeah.
I didn't do it, but you pled guilty in a court of law.
I don't owe him any money.
I already served my penance.
But he only gives him $10,000.
Marvin Barnes is ordered to pay $10,000.
Out of 1.2? Out of 1.5 million.
1.5.
That's pretty...
That's not bad.
I mean, so...
He came up.
Marvin says that he feels vindicated by the settlement
because he doesn't give a shit about 10 grand.
He pisses that away on a seat liner for his Cadillac.
He doesn't give a fuck at this point.
Jason Williams would have said,
that's the best 10 grand I ever spent. that's the best 10 grand I ever spent.
That's the best 10 grand I ever spent.
I beat that motherfucker.
Motherfucker.
What did Jason Williams say?
I beat his fat ass, I believe was his quote.
He did say that.
You guys should really go back to episode four.
That one's good.
It's an early episode,
but goddammit, is that Jason Williams a disaster?
Just constant mess,
and he's firing guns off for no reason,
getting in bar fights.
It's a lot of fun, and it ends in murder.
So whatever you're into,
the true crime, murder angle,
or just fun of crazy athletes,
that has it all for you at Jason Williams.
It's a good one.
It's a really good one.
Marvin is just out of control at this point.
One of the spirits' owners, Donald Shrapnik,
in 1976 in a New York Times article,
and this was as the league was folding,
because at this point the league, the ABA,
makes a deal with the NBA to merge.
Merge, right.
And there's a bunch of teams now, like the Pacers,
teams like that that are Denver Nuggets, I believe,
that are ABA teams that are now NBA teams.
Right.
St. Louis was one of the ones that didn't get folded in.
Oh, so they're just going to fold up.
They're going to fold up.
Marvin gets picked up in an ABA disbursement draft.
So they just absorb the players.
They absorb the players.
Funny thing is, this is also from the 30 for 30 documentary,
a little wrap-up on St. Louis.
Their deal, because they kept trying to fight the NBA,
the ABA needed them to sign off on it for the deal to be complete.
Right.
And they kept saying no because they wanted to be merged.
We want to be in this.
Right.
So they made a deal where they get, because there was seven ABA teams that merged, there
were seven ABA teams total.
They were one of the seven.
They get one-seventh of each one of those teams' television revenues forever.
Oh, wow.
In the 70s, when television revenues weren't anything. Nothing. So the teams were like, yeah, go ahead. Here's your television revenues forever. Oh, wow. In the 70s, when television revenues weren't anything.
Nothing.
So the teams were like, yeah, go ahead.
Here's your television revenues, idiot.
Now it's billions.
Wow.
These guys, I saw in this documentary,
there's all these big business guys saying
that's the greatest deal in the history of business.
In the history of business, they were saying.
The foresight to know that you're going to be
taken care of forever.
They've made hundreds of millions of dollars.
I can't imagine.
I can't imagine how much it is.
A shitty basketball team in St. Louis
that no one watched in the mid-70s.
Hundreds of millions of dollars.
Wow.
Incredible.
And they don't do anything now.
They do nothing.
They don't have to do shit.
They just absorb TV revenue.
They have a party.
They have a party every year.
I would have one every day.
And it says on there,
they have hats they give out
where it says in perpetuity on it.
Because that's the language of the contract, in perpetuity.
And they pop bottles of champagne.
And they cheers each other.
And they're like, yay, free fucking 50 million again this year.
In perpetuity is the longest go fuck yourself in the history.
It's incredible.
The longest fuck you.
One of these incredibly smart
awesome gentlemen
that I want to live
like so fucking badly
Donald Shupak
says that
these guys too
from the documentary
seem like cool dudes
that own this team
they just seem like
cool guys
he said quote
about Marvin
quote he's a nice guy
a sweet guy
everybody likes him
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 bottom 10 percent damn it marvin damn it marvin that's a shitty
review that's not a good that's a bad yelp review right there that's not a good review that's like
the restaurant's beautiful yeah i expected the food to be great too bad there was literally feces
on my plate too bad the guatemalan bus boy shat upon my
table and scooped it on there was no food it was just guatemalan shit that's all it was
and rolls that had speckles that could have been brought along and shit in it so
so he goes to detroit here and when the when the league is absorbed uh he makes 300 grand a year
with detroit now 1976 he's making 300 grand a year that's pretty good
fucking good money right there i would love to make three yeah i mean do the 90s 100 grand was
great money yeah look up the inflation calculator 300 grand is at least a million bucks that's good
money so that's that's damn fine um right away he's a disaster i mean october 76 he is uh sidelined with a leg injury and this is after he just
finishes up three suspensions three team suspensions in a row for violating team rules
missing practices being a general being marvin fuck knows what he was doing because he did crazy
shit i'll give you a story in st louis this is go i'll go back a year to st louis okay this is the type of lunatic he was and this is on the documentary also but it's just fantastic i
gotta share it with you people okay he misses a flight doesn't sleeps in doesn't feel like taking
a flight from new york to norfolk where they're gonna play he's like i'm not going to fucking
norfolk i'm sleeping in go fuck yourselves they all leave he gets up goes oh shit i gotta be in
norfolk there's a fucking game all the flights are like not, the times aren't good.
They fully can't get on a flight.
Charters a jet to Norfolk, okay?
Flies there, gets a cab to the game from the jet,
bursts out of the cab.
There's literally the general manager
standing outside the stadium looking for him.
Where the fuck is Marvin?
He pulls up in a cab.
He's got a big bag full
of mcdonald's hamburgers in his hand hands the guy a hamburger and says good news is i'm here
i got a hamburger for you bad news is you got to go pay the pilot in that cab or they're going to
take me to jail for theft because you owe him like three grand oh my god and the cabbie i owe like
100 bucks too so don't pay that off i'm gonna get in there bursts into the locker room this is they're going over the game plan everyone's in uniform they're about to go
on the court bursts into the locker room opens the double doors he's got a fur coat on a bag
of hamburgers in his hands opens his fur coat and he's got the uniform on underneath it unbelievable
he says never fear i'm here baby and goes out and scores 40 points that night that's the type of fucking guy
fueled on hamburgers from mcdonald's hamburgers and jet lag and he the thing is his talent is
so overwhelming that it overcomes his total fuckery until drugs come into awesome until
drugs come in and that's a lot of these guys yeah if there's no drugs they'll put up with them they
can deal with it.
Well, no, because he can still perform.
He's kind of a crazy guy, but once he gets on the floor, he's on top of shit.
The shenanigans are able to be swept under the rug
because all it is is costing us a little bit of scratch here and there.
It's not costing us a reputation.
He didn't pay the pilot, but then he scored 40.
And the fans liked it, and they bought a Marvin Barnes shirt.
Those 40 points cost us a jet ticket.
Exactly.
It's worth it.
Chartered jet.
I was just about to say, he's making almost a million dollars a year, inflation money
now.
Yeah.
That's not enough to be chartering jets to every fucking game.
No, no.
He just was like, he got in his time machine, and he went down to Norfolk.
God damn it.
So at this point, we get into where, this is where it goes downhill
before he goes to Detroit is where he starts getting into
drugs in St. Louis, and he says in their
own words, quote, I got introduced
to some drug dealers and I got real close
with them. They became like my family.
I was living my fantasy through them.
I always wanted to be a gangster, a drug dealer,
a pimp, a player, a hustler.
I was like, I'm going to die young, die fast,
going to die quick, and I'm going to have fun.
That's it.
Jesus Christ.
So, I mean, that's where he's at at this point,
going to Detroit.
He just wants to have fun.
You just paid this guy $300,000 a year,
and I believe it was $500,000 to draft him.
Wow.
Because you had to pay that to the old team.
That was part of the deal.
So you're telling me his move to Detroit,
Detroit is the town where he starts to fuck up
detroit he was fucking up in st louis but detroit's where it really blossomed
you're telling me detroit was not somewhere that was going to make him wholesome
like an orchid he blossoms like a shit orchid he blossoms in detroit
so he blossoms so deeply and so beautifully that on october 9th 1976 he's arrested at the detroit metro airport
when he's found to have an unregistered handgun oh my god fucking idiot now he's a start he's a
felon from his first assault and now he's got a gun can't have a gun it's unregistered it's not
loaded at least thank god but it's still a gun in the airport any decade not cool especially the
70s because the 70s a lot like the 2000s where we were
very paranoid about air safety the 70s there were skyjackings everywhere that was happening
constantly like they weren't flying planes in buildings but they were making you go land over
here if you don't hold you hostage right they don't release some prisoner in iran right shit
it was all sorts of crazy they just wanted the bodies as like collateral people right it was all sorts of shit yeah it was just that the bodies as like collateral. Cuban people. It was all sorts of shit.
Yeah, it was just,
that's all it was.
We have a plane,
so do what we demand
or we'll kill everybody.
Do what I say
or we'll kill them.
It had nothing to do with
I'm going to drop this
into a giant building
that's very populated.
This gun gets caught
in the conveyor belt
and it's there
going through the x-ray machine.
He claims that,
first of all,
it wasn't his.
It was his girlfriend's
is what he's claiming.
His girlfriend, Evita Behagen, who was traveling with him to St. Louis.
Which, yeah, she's carrying a gun.
He's like, my girl just carries a gun.
I don't, though.
I'm, you know, hanging out with drug dealers and I want to live fast and die young.
I'm a pimp, a player, a hustler.
I don't carry a gun with me.
What are you talking about?
So.
Pimp, player, hustler.
Those words go together so well.
He claims that he told the airport staff about it.
He's like, I told them I had a gun and what were the procedures for getting this gun through to the other side.
He said he was told to put the gun through the conveyor belt and then on the other side they'd check it in and then he'd get it when he lands.
He's like, I'm not stupid.
I wouldn't put a gun on the conveyor belt. What are you talking
about? I don't know anything about it. They told
me to do this. I'm not dumb.
No airport security staff told you
to put a gun under the x-ray machine.
Red flags go off. They don't just
go, hey, hang on. Hey, what do you want to check?
This gun or what? They don't do that. It's not like
when you have an extra stroller or something.
They go, we're going to check this for you.
It's a gun. I'm going to x-ray your gun to make sure it's not a bomb there are little bombs that go inside
that everybody knows what that is wrapped in clothes like he thought that would protect it
if i wrap it in enough cotton it'll keep it the there's polyester in here that'll block the rays
they'll never see it so yeah he's an idiot and it's in the gym bag uh november 16th which is you know a week later he is
uh judge william mckenzie in uh in providence issues an arrest warrant for him for a probation
violation of the weapon and this was like a week before it expired by the way oh jesus it's
literally within 30 days of when his probation expired what terrible luck he's a fucking idiot
is what he is yeah it's funny how luck and stupidity
really cross each other's paths a lot.
They really do.
It's like bad luck and stupid people
really meet up in the middle really often.
And this guy, I mean, it happens constantly.
On the court, 76-77,
he's not having a great time either.
Oh, no.
He's averaging 9.6 points a game, 4.8 rebounds.
Oh, goodness.
He's getting used to the NBA style is way different than the ABA.
The ABA is a wide open, like Golden State Warrior type, you know,
run and gun type of style.
That's what they play.
It's entertaining.
They're trying to be different than the NBA.
That's their thing.
Our style is different.
We have a different ball.
And it's Detroit.
The red, white, and blue ball is where that came from.
And Detroit, they're known for that, for slow it down and rough them up.
Yeah, the Pistons, that's Taylor.
Yeah, so they were, it's, man, that's not doing well.
That's just not him.
It's not him, and he's not doing well.
He's not doing well adjusting.
Right, that's like putting Curry into Isaiah Thomas' role.
Yeah.
It's not going to work.
It's not going to happen.
Clotheslined and murdered by him.
Right, yeah, forget it.
On the Eastern Conference in the late 80s.
Jesus.
There would have been Steph Curry blood on the walls after every game.
He'd ended up exploded all over Robert Parrish's thigh.
Oh, God, yeah, he would have just run into Tree Rollins and it would have been over with.
So December of 76, he pleads guilty to carrying a concealed weapon in Massachusetts.
Now, I couldn't find anything else but that he had a concealed weapon in another state now.
Now Massachusetts is involved in the fray here.
He pleads guilty to that.
So this makes the judge, who was considering letting him...
Now, he's on the hook for a year in prison for this gun charge in the airport because of his probation.
That was a year suspended sentence. Gotcha. He is trying to get out of this everything way he can he's trying to
strike a deal saying he will be like just he will administer he'll just minister to the youth of
detroit he will spend all his free time helping out the kids and give him back to the community
just please don't send me to goddamn jail, basically.
You know what I mean?
So, judge rejects that,
partially based on him having a gun again.
Basically says no.
In Massachusetts this time.
Yeah, but this is in Providence.
He's getting sentenced here.
He's sentenced to a year in prison for his probation violation.
It reinstates the sentence on the gun charge.
There is an agreement made
between the prosecutors and marvin that allows
him to finish the basketball season and serve the sentence when it's over that's nice so that's not
bad actually they're being decent to him uh judge anthony a giannini is one of my favorite judges
ever uh by the way there's this guy's great he's he's so not fucking okay with marvin barnes at all
he's very disappointed with him he says he's giving him a harsh sentence because he's he's so not fucking okay with marvin barnes at all he's very disappointed with him he says
he's giving him a harsh sentence because he's he broke his promise to stay out of trouble
he said the lawyers for barnes were you know still trying to get this you know disadvantaged
youth angle going yeah giannini not having any of that shit says quote this is one of the greatest
sentencing things too for a judge says quote barnes is not a model to be emulated by the
young and impressionable advice to the young given by a man who has yet to prove that he is a responsible
citizen must fall on deaf ears you sir may fuck off one year in prison and giannini sounds like
a hard ass that is a beautiful fuck off yeah it really is i don't even want you talking to the
kids you are a bad influence stay the fuck away from kids, matter of fact.
No.
As a matter of fact, you get extra time for your kids, goddamn it.
Just for that bullshit try to plea.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, so it's, oh my goodness.
So he's got until the end of the basketball season now before he has to go to prison.
He's back in there.
March 22, 1977, Barnes is missing for a few days in Detroit. Where's Barnes? there. March 22nd, 1977. Barnes is missing
for a few days in Detroit.
Where's Barnes?
They were in Denver
for a game.
Right.
They lost the game.
Barnes asked if he could
stay overnight
and come travel back
the next day.
They said fine.
Two days later,
he's not at practice
on Tuesday.
Where the fuck is Marvin?
No idea.
Marvin's gone, missing.
He's in the wind.
Jesus.
He comes back
a few days later.
Unbelievable.
They fine him.
They suspend him
or whatever. For five days, he just disappears. He just disappears. He comes back a few days later. Unbelievable. They fine him. They suspend him or whatever.
For five days he just disappears.
He just disappears.
He's just gone.
No word.
This is Martin.
He's on a coke binge, this guy.
He's a crazy person.
May 16th, 1977 is when he goes to jail.
Begins his one year sentence
for the old parole violation here.
He is eligible for probation violation.
He's eligible for parole after four months.
It's a third of his sentence.
That's nice.
So he can get out soon.
He's in Cranston, Rhode Island, where he's serving.
This is how, when they sentenced him,
he gives a nice, in their own words here, quote,
this is on how it affected his game.
Because he had to play for a few months
knowing that he was going to prison.
This is how it affected his game.
He said, quote,
I've got to do my time,
and it's affecting me mentally and physically.
This has not been a beautiful season for me.
I haven't proved anything.
I have been playing for this team
with broken bones, a punched eye,
and the dissension on this team.
I have been plugging along.
Jesus.
He's all over the map there.
He's like, I'm down for the team.
That's a terrible excuse.
Fuck them.
They don't like me,
and there's dissension,
but I keep on anyway.
I keep trying. Not exactly a team player. But it's a terrible excuse because the they don't like me and there's dissension but i keep on anyway i keep trying not exactly a team player terrible excuse because the stats suffered horribly oh horribly
yeah yeah i know his playing time was a little left too it was a little less but now we get into
a seriously silver-haired middle-aged white fantastic oscar feldman now oscar feldman is
like a kind of a gm's office guy for the Detroit Pistons.
He says while the judge was considering letting Marvin minister to the youth rather than go to jail,
he was making quotes praising him, saying he's a credit to the judiciary
and he's going to give Marvin a chance and Marvin deserves it.
What a great judge.
Jesus.
We're just so happy to have a guy like that in public, you know, on the bench and crazy.
At this point, he said,
he remained optimistic about Barnes saying,
quote, I expect Marvin to have a bright future in Detroit.
He's done nothing to show that he has a bright future.
He's on coke.
He's disappeared.
He's in prison.
He's got weapons in the airport.
He's in prison.
Yeah.
That's where you go.
I don't know if this guy's got such a bright future
in Detroit at that point.
Even if you thought it up till that point,
at that point you go,
I'm not sure about his future in Detroit.
It doesn't look that bright.
It's like that guy saying those kind of nice things
about fucking Johnny Football right now.
Yeah, right now.
Right.
He's going to be a great player.
He's got a really bright future in the league.
That's what he's saying right now,
this silver-haired,
only a silver-haired middle-aged white man
would watch a guy get on the bus shackled to go to prison and go,
that young man's got a bright future in my organization.
Let me tell you something.
That guy's got some talent.
How silver must your hair be?
Oscar Feldman, you stupid dipshit.
Jesus.
He then praises Marvin for studying for his degree in jail
and all this stuff and says he's quote making the best of
his situation. Good grief. He's just
in prison just jerking water up.
Him and the GM Bob Kaufman
and one of the owners all go to see him in jail
and they have a nice little circle jerk. It's amazing.
Each one
massaging one nut while the other one strokes
him or something. That's incredible.
He looks in his eyes and tells him what a beautiful
man he is. Tells him nice sweet things about that huge load he just shot all over the other one your penis is
lovely i just wanted to tell you that it's just fantastic not a mark on it a mark on it smooth
put your letterman jacket on try to rob me pretend you're 18 again so there's an article here in
1977 july 27th uh about how he wants out of jail.
It's called Marvin Barnes Wants Out of Jail.
Pretty solid name for the article.
He is complaining.
He's like, I'm holding it together.
I'm good.
I'm taking classes.
They put me in maximum security part for 10 days.
There's killers and rapists and shit in there.
And I know I'd be a target because I'm a professional athlete.
And they know I have money.
And so I had to stay by he was just going on there's a quote that's like a page
long of just him like i can't believe they did this to me and holy shit this is bad okay gotta
go now bye they're serving jello in the cafeteria and he was just gone the hours are over it was
insane so he's bitching now a week later august 4th 1977 coincidence i don't think marvin's desperate
to get out so desperate he's calling the press, just going, please, please.
By the way, guys, if you hear anything in the background, Frankie the Crime and Sports Dog is roaming.
So if you hear anything, it might be her with a toy or her doing her thing.
Some shit.
Follow Frankie the Crime and Sports Dog on Instagram.
She's on Instagram.
She's hilarious.
Anyway, so a week later, after Marvin Barnes is complaining publicly,
Anyway, so a week later, after Marvin Barnes is complaining publicly, his mother goes to the authorities to tell them that she had to pay $1,500 in protection money for Marvin.
Saying that, like, you know, in jail when there's new prisoners.
Like he's got a hit on him or something. If they have money, they like extort you for money and stuff.
Oh, Jesus.
And saying that it's an ongoing racket and it's a big corruption in the prison system.
This is a week after Marvin's like,
get me out of jail, please, somehow.
The mother asked the judge to pardon him at this point.
What?
Now, what I'm thinking happened is
Marvin said, I need $1,500.
There's guys that are going to kill me otherwise.
And then bought a shitload of jail cocaine
off of that money.
And then said,
maybe I could use this to get out of jail, too.
And $1,500 in jail coke
is not a lot of coke.
Not a lot, no.
That'll get you
a couple of days.
Especially in the 70s.
70s, coke was expensive.
It wasn't, you know,
everywhere.
And in prison
it's much more expensive.
So Marvin's sitting there
with dried, you know,
just dust.
Prison coke dust
on his nose.
Prison coke dust
around his nose
going,
tell the authorities
it's a racket, please.
It's corrupt, mama.
They're going to kill me.
They're going to kill me.
So, yeah, it's fucking a mess at this point.
And all this, it's only another month he's got to be in there.
It's like, calm down, Marvin.
You have four weeks, dude.
Chill out.
So in September of 77, he's granted parole.
Doesn't get to get out right away, though.
They say it's going to take another month.
And Marvin's like, my game's going to suffer.
They basically told him, tough shit. you should have thought about that for putting a
fucking weapon in a fucking carry-on prisoners are going to be pissed if you get out yeah
there's gonna be a fucking riot if you're like literally said morale in the prison being what
it is right now we can't do that one of the prison officials said that um he's set to return to
detroit to the pistons on october 14th 1977 uh For a fucking god-awful year of 77-78.
Just a mess.
He's traded to the Buffalo Braves midseason,
who turn into the San Diego Clippers,
who turn into the LA Clippers.
That season he averages 11.4 points a game, 7.3 rebounds,
in this upcoming 77-78 season.
Just not real great here.
He's playing like the Clippers of the 90s.
Yeah.
On getting out of prison, this is going forward.
Everything's behind him right now.
I'm good now.
I'm good now.
Cocaine!
Because this is Eddie Johnson all over again, man.
This is exactly what it is.
And he has a very similar to Eddie Johnson life. Awesome. Very similar. So check out Eddie Johnson all over again, man. This is exactly what it is. And he has a very similar to Eddie Johnson life.
Awesome.
Very similar.
So check out Eddie Johnson.
It mirrors.
And he's just as fun, by the way.
Right.
So this is his quote on getting out of prison.
Everything behind him.
I'm good now.
Yeah.
Cocaine.
Quote, in their own words, I appreciate things a whole lot more.
I'm 25 now.
I'm ready to go ahead in my life and accept responsibilities.
I know I'll be a success.
Wow.
End quote.
So,
25 years old.
Reset button.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a fucking Nintendo game.
Yeah, yeah.
Mario, back to 1-1,
motherfucker.
Back to five lives.
Back to three lives,
1-1.
Right, right.
And you gotta wait
for Luigi when you die.
So he's 25 years old,
fresh out of prison.
He already, at 25, has had the world as an oyster.
Yeah, and he still does.
I mean, honestly, look at it this way.
He's 25, still has all the talent.
If he stops doing cocaine right now, he's in the NBA.
He can get back on track.
He can get back on track.
He could be making even bigger money in a few years.
He could be a superstar in two years.
A couple 40-point games, people are believing in you again.
They forget about all this shit, as we've seen every time.
Yeah, Kobe Bryant's a perfect example.
Yeah, it's all good once you get a couple big games.
Tiger Woods, take a cue, brother.
Go win one, and everybody will love you again.
No, don't forget about it.
What white girls?
What were you talking about?
Who?
What?
Nah, he doesn't fucking who.
What porn stars?
No, it doesn't matter.
So in 1978,
things are bad
even for Marvin's family.
This is a disease
that's spread around the family.
Let's say you know
how bad the home life is.
It's communicable.
It's communicable.
Probably from the parents
I'm going to think here.
Probably from the alcoholic father.
Right.
Barnes's sister,
Alfred,
was at this point in 1978
sentenced to seven years in jail
his sister's name
is Alfred
Alford
oh Alfred
yeah
she's sentenced
for a parole violation
her original charges
were check fraud
and welfare fraud
oh boy
and the violation
was for robbery
and harboring a fugitive
so she had no money
she's just as much
of a mess as him
she's broke
I mean
the whole family
is a fucking disaster
at this point
and the mother at least harboring a fugitive at least the mom who the hell knows she heard
they robbery so her boyfriend probably robbed something and then she hit him said what okay
come on yeah something stupid so the mother's the only one she's living in a decent house because
marvin barnes one nice thing he did when he got his first signing bonus first thing he bought was
his mom a house in the neighborhood so in a shit neighborhood but still bought her a new house right so that was a good thing um it's july 27th
1978 marvin is trying to prove himself he's really trying hard uh he calls up in his ep has an
article he this is like a press conference not a press conference but he wants the press to know
about this he calls up boston Boston Celtics owner John Brown.
Because at this point, he is signed by Boston for the 78-79 season.
Now, this is the summer before the season, 78.
78-79.
Parrish and McHale and Bird are there?
No.
Bird is, what, 80?
79-80.
Bird comes in, I believe.
I don't know when he was drafted.
Because him and Magic were rookies in the same this is i don't know when he was him because him and uh
him and magic were rookies in the same year because they that was 80 then that was 80 so
so then they they didn't were they pretty good to celtics then uh they still had red hourbach
oh yeah so i mean they got legendary it was after this yeah this was the tail end of the dynasty
after it died all right that sort of thing this is like the 2003 yankees basically you know what
i mean so still cool reputable thing to do.
And he said it was his dream to play for the Celtics his whole life.
Because that's Providence.
Providence, they get all, I've been to Rhode Island,
they get all the Boston media.
That's the TV show.
It's all New England, everything associated with Boston.
Exactly.
You get all the Red Sox scores and all that shit.
Patriots and all that shit.
So he calls Boston Celtics owner John Brown
and asks him to remove the guarantee from his contract.
He's guaranteed $300,000 a year.
He says, remove the guarantee from my contract.
He needs the challenge, he said.
He's self-doing this.
He said he's ready to show the American public the real Marvin Barnes.
Oh, no.
We don't want to see that Marvin.
We do not want to see the real Marvin Barnes.
He said he just got married.
He marries a girl named Debra.
He just got married. He's a new man. So he wants it like incentive-laden? Everything's Marvin Barnes. He said he just got married. He marries a girl named Debra. He just got married.
He's a new man.
So he wants it like incentive-laden?
Everything's behind him.
No, he just, yeah, he wants it to, if he doesn't perform, he can be cut and the team won't have to pay him.
Wow.
Because that's the motivation he needs.
He only has $50,000 a year guaranteed at $300,000.
I think that had something to do with the union.
So if he does well, he gets $300,000?
If he plays, if they keep him, he gets $300,000.
But they can cut him after two games and and all he gets is his 50 grand.
He doesn't get the whole contract. Because at that point...
He's a goddamn idiot. He had guaranteed
money, a three-year guaranteed contract.
So if they cut him after two games, they had to
pay him $900,000. That's the dumbest
fucking thing I've ever heard to remove that. It's fucking stupid.
Now, if you're actually serious, and if you
actually have quit cocaine, and if you're
actually serious,
it's a good, it's a move to say, hey, let's look at me.
And everybody goes, wow, look at Marvin.
He's not fucking around anymore. It's betting on yourself.
It's betting on yourself.
But to throw the money on the table for no reason and then snort cocaine off of it, that's stupid.
You're an idiot at that point.
Yeah, he's married at this point.
In 78, player coach at this point, Dave. Yeah, he's married at this point. In 78, player-coach at this point,
Dave Cowens, who's a legend,
he's the head coach and player,
and he's a player too, of Boston,
said in public to a media member,
quote, I don't want him around, exclamation point.
I don't want him in uniform.
This is a job and the way we make our living.
But you've got to abide by the rules.
And if you have to depend on Barnes for your livelihood,
you've got a problem.
That's the coach of the team.
I don't want to know Marvin.
That's what he just said.
Don't fucking want him.
And he was absolutely correct to think that
because Marvin admits to snorting cocaine
on the bench during games
while he played for the Boston Celtics.
On the bench?
That's the greatest thing I've ever heard.
At least Eddie Johnson did it in the goddamn locker room. That's the greatest thing I've ever heard. At least Eddie Johnson
did it in the goddamn locker room.
That's more ballsy
than Mark Grace
smoking cigarettes
in the tunnel.
Everybody did that back then.
That was normal.
People used to smoke
them in the dugout back then.
That's awesome.
This is on the bench.
He's doing cocaine,
which is highly illegal still
and looked upon
as not a real nice thing
to do in the 70s.
Here's his in their own words
about his
on bench cocaine use quote yeah i was doing it on the bench i was playing for the celtics and i was
sitting next to nate archibald and somebody else and i was just snorting cocaine right there on
the bench while the game was going on they all moved away from me i had it hit under a towel
i guess i don't need to say that my career didn't last much longer after that. Holy shit. End quote.
That's amazing.
I can't imagine any job that you're doing and you're doing coke just right on the, while
you're watching people do whatever it is that you do.
It's a disaster.
No matter where you're at.
No.
If you're doing coke just sitting down and relaxing on your break, you're going to get
fired.
Unless you're like a 1979 record producer.
Unless you're just.
Give us another take on Stewart. What do you got there? Unless you. She thinks you record producer. Unless you're... Give us another take on Stewart.
What do you got there?
Unless you... She thinks you're sexy.
She really wants you.
Come on.
Come on.
Let's go, buddy.
Let's go.
Two takes.
Come on.
We got to get this.
Unless your job is cocaine salesman.
You're getting fired for whatever it is you do.
Even then, it's like, dude, don't get high on your own supply.
What the fuck?
Never appropriate to do cocaine on the job.
78-79 season ends miserably.
8.1 points per game
4.7 rebounds
just in the toilet
June of 1979
after the season ends
the summertime
with these NBA players
with problems
Barnes is charged
with assault
on May 29th
1979
on his estranged
at this point
wife Debra
remember his new guy
just got married
she's estranged already.
It's over already.
After allegedly slapping her after a party.
Unbelievable.
June 30th, by that time, one month goes by,
the charges are dropped.
What a different time this is in the 70s.
Charges are dropped because Debra Barnes told the judge
that she considered it, quote, a family matter.
They said, you two go home and settle it.
We'll handle it internally.
Holy shit.
I don't think that's what the TV show of the same name had in mind.
No.
Family matter, where you can beat your wife and tell the cops to take a fucking hike.
Because it's, we'll handle it internally.
Urkel pops in and Carl Winslow's popping.
Fucking working, what's her fat ass over?
I don't even remember.
Mrs. Winslow.
Working Mrs. Winslow over. Harriet. Harriet was her name't even remember. Mrs. Winslow. Working Mrs. Winslow over.
Harriet.
Harriet was her name.
There you go.
Harriet Winslow.
Just got her pinned down
on a coffee table
and just blasted her.
That's like the third
Winslow reference.
Jesus Christ, man.
We are heavy
on the family matters reference.
I watched maybe
three episodes of that show
and haven't seen it
in 25 years.
You still watch it
every Friday.
I fucking hated that show.
I loved it.
Good Lord, so corny.
All right right so by
february by in february of that year he was placed on waivers waiver so he's already gone
it's done there's articles at this point where after the june thing where he's like just saying
i'm a good guy i'm still i just want to play i'm a good guy somebody hire me uh red auerbach who
is the legendary coach of it's a big deal yeah two hands with nine titles i, who is the legendary coach of... He's a big deal. Yeah, two hands with nine titles, I believe.
He is the Lombardi from Green Bay of Boston.
That's what he is.
He's nine NBA titles.
He's Phil Jackson back before Phil Jackson in the 60s.
Had a dynasty in the Celtics.
He said about his release, why they released Marvin,
he said, quote,
Barnes has failed to live up to his contractual obligations.
He hasn't contributed competitively to the ball club.
Barnes has not maintained himself in first-class condition to play
and has materially breached his contract.
Jesus.
You, sir, may fuck off again.
No doubt.
That's a well-spoken.
That right there is why he's a legend.
That's why he's a legend.
He brought that in concisely and said,
this is why he's a piece of shit right here.
He said everything but take personal.
He even said he's kind of fat.
He's a little fat, I'm not going to say.
He's gained a couple of pounds.
He could take a jog.
He could take a couple of jogs.
You'd think somebody that's on that much coke would be a little thinner.
We expected him to be thinner with all this cocaine.
We said he's on coke, but he's going to be in great shape.
Great shape.
Turns out he's a fat fuck too.
We should have known
after the bags of hamburgers
that we hear about him.
He's a lazy drug doer.
And he used to like
too back in the day
just before coke
he was cool.
He would like
go in his big giant car
in his Rolls Royce
and pick up like
ghetto kids
from the neighborhood
and take them
all to McDonald's
and show up at the game
with like 40 kids behind him
with a McDonald's and shit and like they're coming to the game with like 40 kids behind him with a McDonald's and shit.
And like, they're coming to the game with me.
That's cool shit.
He's seen that Mean Joe Green commercial for Coke.
This is before that commercial even.
This is before that.
He was Mean Joe Green before that.
So if he didn't get into Coke, man,
this guy was just a cool, crazy, flaky.
He might have been Charles Barkley.
All right.
That type of guy.
I'm not a role model.
I'm not a role model.
He might have just been kind of a wacky, kind of whatever. I'm not a role model. I'm not a role model. He might have just been kind of a wacky kind of whatever.
I'm not a role model, but let's go get a cheeseburger.
A good quote, you know, whenever he punched a guy in a bar.
You know, some poor shit like that.
A teammate with a tire iron.
Same thing.
Put a key bump on a bench and he has a great quote about it or some shit.
Fucking cocaine.
So he says of his whole time in the NBA, in their own words, because it's kind of
sad here, quote, this is the only time when he's kind of like, man, I think I fucked up. He says,
quote, on the court, I felt the only ones who could stop me were God and myself. And that's
what happened. I stopped myself. When I started using drugs, I was snorting cocaine day and night.
I didn't have any control. When I started using coke, if we had back-to-back games on a Friday and a Saturday, I would start snorting coke and keep doing it up until an hour before the game Oh my God.
That's why he's...
We're at our box saying he's not in physical shape.
He's not.
He's showing up for two days doing coke.
And he had a game the night before.
So no rest.
The only thing he cares about is coke.
It's amazing that he was getting 8.1 points per game, honestly.
Scoring 40 in the ABA
to going to this
is unbelievable.
He was doing it on the bench.
On the bench during the game.
You can't even stop
for two and a half hours
while you're on the bench
in public.
There's cameras.
You're doing it up to
an hour before game time.
How is there not enough
in your system
to carry you through this game?
And then it went to
fuck an hour before game time. It's the second quarter. system to carry you through this game went to fucking hour before game time it's the second quarter there's still four minutes left
i'm getting kind of sleepy jesus christ so i mean at this point now he's 79 80 he plays for the
clippers uh san diego clippers three point he only plays 20 games they cut him after he gets
like two 10-day contracts, and then they shit can.
John Delio.
3.2 points a game, 3.9 rebounds per game.
Finishes up his entire pro career, 16 points a game, even 9.1 rebounds per game.
That's not even bottom of the bench.
That's because his ABA numbers are so great.
That counts, though.
That's the only reason why.
Otherwise, he's a mess.
That's not even the last guy on the depth chart numbers chart numbers those are terrible numbers he's done with major professional
american basketball he's totally fucked um he's got a rip roaring cocaine addiction he's slapping
his wife i mean his sister's in jail for seven years his mom's got a house but he's got a
teammate with a cracked skull from a tire iron. He's been to jail.
His mom's been extorted.
Life is hard for Marvin Barnes.
Everyone around him.
I feel bad.
I feel terrible for them.
I feel bad for all these people, Jimmy.
I really do.
But not nearly as bad as I feel for these poor bastards named Marvin Barnes that are floating around out there in the world.
There's got to be a shitload of them.
Just a few of them here. Marvin Barnes, the sales team leader of the Gulf Coast
with Cellular Sales in Flowood, Mississippi.
Or maybe has a coke problem.
And possibly Marvin Barnes, project manager
at Air Force Civil Engineering Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Or maybe was beaten by his father.
I feel bad for this guy, but he went to the University of Phoenix,
so he's a idiot that'll fall for anything.
I am a Phoenix, you jackass.
Marvin Barnes is from Sycamore Containers in Sycamore, Illinois.
Marvin Barnes is a senior therapeutic specialist at Gilead Sciences in Dallas-Fort Worth.
And Marvin Barnes is a technology manager at Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina.
You poor guys are about six pages deep when you Google your name, guys.
You poor guys are about six pages deep when you Google your name, guys.
You're about six pages deep of cocaine stories and horrible insanity. Be thankful that you're not chasing some career in entertainment.
Thank shit for that.
Yeah.
Or sports or...
Nothing.
Yeah, nothing.
Just stay with Bank of America and whatever else you guys are doing.
The one guy's picture on LinkedIn, he looked like a 55-year-old black guy, too.
And I was like, there's people that are going to confuse that poor bastard and be like poor guy i
hope he's not six nine got a terrible pass he better be short okay not the same guy so he august
8th 1980 he signs with the trieste hurlingham team in italy now he's going over to europe he's playing ball he's just trying to do something um he is he
in november 7th 1980 he is this i got this article by the way from the greatest newspaper name of all
time the baltimore afro-american yeah which is a very 1980 yeah for a newspaper he's 1980 on
november 7th he's arrested at a party in trieste italy so he finds it wherever he fucking goes police find a
bunch of cocaine at the party of course yeah uh there's fashion models and like it's like a like
a high society cocaine party basically he's charged with making a false statement originally
for lying about something he probably said i ain't got no cocaine he had a bunch of cocaine in his
face a bunch in his pocket you're in possession of about an eighth of a gram on your face, sir.
Yeah.
He's also held for four days on some sort of vague Italian,
I don't know what the laws are over there,
but some sort of vague sexual charges
after police interview a bunch of the women at the party.
So he's being held.
Some vague copulation of some broad.
Yeah, they let him out eventually.
They let him out.
Fingered a butt hole on accident. Four days they let him out eventually. They let him out. Four days they let him out.
The team shit cans him. Not even for that.
They apparently had shit canned him before
that incident. I don't know what the hell he was still doing in Italy.
For, guess what, failing to
go to practice and quote other various
team offenses.
Who the fuck knows?
Everything's just like other various shit.
From talking to a guy with a tire iron to doing cocaine on the bench.
You name it.
Don't worry.
He did it.
It's something.
He's just done a bunch of shit and we're done with him.
So, I mean, he's done there.
Next year, August 10th, 1981.
Oh, my God.
Barnes is arrested in Providence for charges of pandering for a prostitute,
which is pimping.
Yeah.
Which is pimping on his ex-girlfriend.
She says that he just kept trying
to quote put her turn her out on the streets and get him to go out there um a month later though
she says misunderstanding we'll handle it internally we're handling it internally
it's an internal matter it's a family matter family matter we'll deal with it said
tally ho then guys you guys have a good one and uh charges are dropped
against him no problem there you get just tell him it's an inter this is all every summer yeah
july 28th 1982 next summer barnes is arrested for marijuana possession and eluding police
after he's seen on the streets he's seen purchasing a large amount of marijuana on the street
like cops watched him purchase it and then they had to chase him down.
They're like, sir, you there.
And then he's like, oh, I'll see you guys around, and just runs.
Hey, later, guys.
I will not stop right here.
I will not stop right here.
I have this large bag of marijuana I need to get home and bag up quickly.
No, sir, I have a long, extensive history with you guys.
I would not like to speak with you.
What a disaster.
He's charged with possession with intent to distribute, which is a felony.
Alluding to he ran away from the cops.
They charged him as a drug dealer.
Once again, the cops were like, is that Marvin Barnes trying to buy a shitload of weed over there?
He's got his fucking Boston Celtics team jacket on with Marvin on it.
I don't know what happened.
Is that a Central High jacket that says Marvin?
Central High jacket?
Is that Marvin Barnes?
He is 6'9".
Doesn't look like he's in very good shape.
Does he have coke on his nose?
Is that coke?
Shitty jail coke?
Watch the tire iron.
Watch it.
Watch it.
Don't approach him too quickly.
So he's doing so well in 82 after that happens that in September of 1982,
September 30th to be exact barnes signs with the continental
basketball association holy shit who signed jason williams after he shot a guy in the fucking face
they don't give a shit what you've done signed actually no that was before he shot a guy okay
they signed him who signed eddie johnson after he was done wow if you're a guy who ever had a name
yeah and you're they signed tom paine tom Payne played there after getting out of jail on multiple four rape charges.
They were like, hey, sign him right up.
He played for, yeah, I remember that.
Kenny Dunk, bring him over.
Louisville Catbirds.
Catbirds, that's right.
He signs with the Detroit Spirits.
It's a new team.
They take the old St. Louis name there.
He's played in Detroit, and he played for the Spirits.
That's the perfect team for him.
This shit doesn't last long at all.
I can't imagine.
Cocaine, robbery, theft, pimping, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
There's a storm.
Who the hell knows?
I guarantee when he got interviewed, he said, I'm good now.
I'm good now.
Everything's fine.
Cocaine!
Cocaine!
Where is it?
So he's at this point in the early 80s.
He is...
Now, I don't...
This charge here, I saw it different every place,
and nobody has a concise story of exactly what happened.
So I don't know if this is...
I'm going to say this is the 90s,
so I'm going to wait on this for one second.
He, from 1985 to 1989,
he lives on the street in San Diego.
Wow.
He's homeless.
He's arrested various times. It's a good place to be homeless, though. san diego he's homeless he's arrested various times good place
to be homeless he says that's what he says he says of it how did he says quote it was warm so i robbed
and stole that's what he said it was beautiful so i figured fuck it i'll steal shit chill out on
mission beach he's homeless the whole time he says he sleeps in abandoned buildings and cars he said he's just drinking yeah pimping robbing stealing living on the street he said he always
wanted to well here he is minus the cadillac um he said he was so desperate that he wanted to get
caught that he would rob cash registers and tell the cashier my name's marvin barnes and walk out i'm gonna be
over here remember that literally he'd be like i'm gonna be on the corner over here my name's
marvin barnes remember me is he just looking for he wanted to get caught jesus started doing heroin
in addition to his cocaine oh no he is a fucking mess uh with the substances man it's so bad. October 1989, he's arrested in San Diego on some heroin, some cocaine,
and also stealing videotapes from an adult bookstore.
That's what he gets busted for.
Jesus Christ.
For a second there, I was terrifiedly worried for him.
Like, genuinely inside my heart.
I was like, he's doing coke and heroin.
And then you say he's stealing adult stores.
He still wants to jerk off.
VHS tapes, like the ones
that you rent and then return.
He's stealing somebody else's
DNA.
Oh yeah, they have semen on their hands
when they take it out of the VCR, absolutely.
He just stole semen.
Put a black light on one of those bad boys
circa 1989, I don't think so
but the good news is he had access to a vcr at some point either that or more than likely he
was going to go sell them on the streets yeah yeah three dollars you want some porno three
dollars and then he's going to go fucking buy some more you want to go jerk your dick here you go
there you go it'll help you out this will help you right here so he gets a nine month sentence
for that and at this point there is fluff pieces abound about this guy in every paper.
Barnes is in.
How do you write something positive about that?
How many athletes, every time they fuck up, if they are okay or seemingly coherent for
five goddamn minutes, somebody will come out with an article saying, oh, there's great
now.
Everything's fine.
Everyone loves a redemption story so much that they're so, they just jump the gun on these redemption stories every time.
The hurricane sold like a motherfucker.
Dude, it's amazing.
I mean, so this, he's saying that now he's doing nothing but studying the Bible.
He's found religion, which we know is a bad sign at this point, judging by our other people.
No offense if you're religious.
You're not an athlete who's been in jail 12 times.
That's a bad sign.
A cocaine and heroin addiction.
And you pimped out your ex-girlfriend.
And you drew down on your father when you were 18 years old.
And smashed your teammate and robbed the boss with your...
They could go on forever.
Unbelievable.
It's insane.
So, I mean, he finds religion.
And they're all saying he's in jail, but he's not out.
Down, but not out.
Man, he's in good shape.
Everything's going to be fine with Marvin Barnes.
He's doing so much better now. Down, but not out, man. He's in good shape. Everything's going to be fine with Marvin Barnes. He's doing so much better now.
Until, apparently, now this, apparently,
now I don't know if this happened for like 85, 86, or early 90s.
We cannot get confirmation on it,
but I believe it's early 90s in the timeline.
It makes the most sense if it's in the early 90s.
He goes to Houston, Texas to be in a rehab facility.
Not long after that, he is arrested in a drug ring for trafficking in cocaine.
He's arrested for delivering drugs.
Trafficking.
He's in a major cocaine ring in a huge bust.
He's a part of it.
Shit.
Yeah, he gets a seven-year sentence.
Prison.
That's over.
Texas prison.
Yeah.
seven-year sentence prison that's over texas prison yeah uh he's a seven-year sentence it at a linah prison in fort stockton texas um it's horrible i mean he's yeah he at one point tells a
story about when he was in prison and he said the guards wouldn't stop fights they would encourage
fights and they would let them happen and they would they're probably betting on him i guarantee
they're better they were like yeah and especially let me six nine six nine at this point too in
prison he's like 300 pounds you're constantly betting against him yeah and trying to get this
huge oh i'm betting against him and trying to get the underdog yeah that's true that's what i'm doing
every time yeah let's try to even out the money big hell yeah so he's talking about a time when
he beat a prisoner senseless and he saw his blood flowing all over the place.
And he was kicking him when he was down and the guy was half dead on the floor.
And he was like, that's when I needed to change my life.
I knew at that point I needed to get my shit together and that this wasn't going to work anymore.
Jesus.
And so he tries and tries and tries.
Year 2000, he reasserts himself to Christianity again.
He's all religious.
year 2000 he reasserts himself to christianity again he's all religious um june 30th 2002 there's a big fluff piece in the beaver county times about how marvin works with kids to keep
them off drugs he says he's been clean for two years which that meant in 2000 when he was still
fucking up after prison and everything else so he's been clean everything's great he's out of
prison now 2000 june 30th 2002 yeah he's free he's doing clean. Everything's great. He's out of prison now. June 30th, 2002.
Yeah, he's free.
He's doing fine.
He's doing great with the kids.
Everything's wonderful.
Schools are allowing this man on their campus.
Absolutely.
So everything's good for Marvin now, right?
I'm good, right?
Yeah, I'm good.
Absolutely.
Until December 22nd, 2005.
It's getting to be around Christmas time.
When Warwick police arrest Barnes for disorderly conduct after
arriving at a home
after a call of a home invasion
to find him on a balcony
butt naked.
He is naked as shit
dragging a woman across
a balcony while she screams
please help me back at the house.
Holy shit. He admits
that he'd been drinking all day and that
this was a friend of his the woman yeah and you got to be a really close friend to be naked and
dragging yeah first of all you got your dick out in her presence you gotta be pretty close at that
point you're dragging her she's very close to your dick that's and that's that's got to be a heated
argument yeah i don't have many friends that i could get into arguments that heated where i want
to take my clothes off and drag them
across a balcony.
So he called her a friend
and said it was
just a misunderstanding.
We'll deal with it
internally.
We're going to deal
with it internally.
It's a family matter.
I like to take my cock out,
go outside,
and drag her with me.
Just some shit we do.
So two weeks later,
there's a fluff piece
about how he's working
with the Rebound Foundation to help kids. What the fuck? Two weeks later! He a fluff piece about how he's working with the rebound foundation to help
kids what the fuck two weeks later he's gonna teach him how to get naked and drag women there
are literally two weeks later people he's hanging out with kids after he was naked drunk dragging a
woman off the thing and two weeks later they're going this is fine he should be around children
they even mention the arrest in the fluff wow but they're like they breeze by it and they're like but today he's great i'm good now cocaine is it like holy
shit every day you've got to write something nice about him and because you've got to correct because
that piece is going to be shit in a couple weeks anyway that's what i mean it's like you just keep
one on keep one on file yeah a fluff piece and a here hehe-goes-again piece on file. Just throw them out every once in a while.
Yeah, give me Marvin Barnes 2A.
That's the fluff piece.
Just stagger him.
Oh, shit.
Marvin Barnes 2B.
Just got arrested again.
So now he's fine.
January 6, 2006.
Really?
No more.
Right.
Everything is good.
God damn it.
Jimmy, I believe in this man.
He's working with the Rebound Foundation.
He's helping kids.
God damn it.
He's doing it. Rebound Foundation. He's helping kids, goddammit. He's doing it.
Right?
Right.
Wrong.
May 15, 2007.
He's arrested in Providence, Rhode Island.
For guess what?
Cocaine possession.
Of course.
He went back home, though, so he's clearly on that slide.
Doing it again.
Just got to get back home to Rebound and start over.
He's driving an SUV.
They pull him over, search him.
Got a bunch of cocaine in the car.
Again, as usual.
Same year, 2007, he releases the book title
that has the most fucking commas in it
I've ever goddamn seen.
Dude, make up your mind and get that shit concise.
2007 book called, quote,
They Call Me Bad News, colon,
The Fast Times, Wild N wild nights and outlaw life of
basketball's original rebel marvin barnes jesus holy shit dude pick a title and fucking go with
it you say it's this book's about marvin barnes so i am more mad at him for his indecisiveness
than anything just shit together bro bad news is a great nickname it's concise it's wonderful
this fucking idiot he can't come up they call me bad news is beautiful they call me bad news the fast life and times of
marvin barnes or some shit like that marvin but whatever the basketball's original revel martin
you could pick a third of that title and it's fine you can take third you could take four words
random ones out of there and make a great title. It's wonderful, yeah. So, I mean, he continues to apparently just, after that, the next few years, he's on, he's off, he's on, he's off.
Apparently, in about 2010, 2011, he really just never comes really back off.
I mean, he totally does 19 rehab stints.
I mean, he tried over his life.
19 rehab stints.
He did four different prison terms.
He did a total of five years in prison, basically,
with all of his shit added up.
My parents and my wife's parents,
between the four of the individual people,
there are 18 marriages combined.
He has 19 stints in rehab.
19.
I don't feel like he tried because they have 18
failed marriages between them and i look at them and i'm like they're not trying the harder to get
you know what i mean so i don't feel like 19 stints is really trying i feel like he just
went to say look i'm doing it you know yeah because it was court ordered it was it was what
he needed to do to show what he was doing. He just went right the fuck back.
Half the time, it was a goddamn bed to sleep in, probably, too.
Yeah, that's...
You know, so who knows?
It's just desperation.
He got that bad.
I feel like their marriages, those 18 marriages,
are just desperation as well.
Go on.
It's true, man.
He goes back and forth and on and off, and it's just sad.
Yeah.
One week, he's working with kids.
Next week, he is just, you know, coked out and out of his mind.
He dies September 8, 2014.
Oh, good grief.
So finally.
He gets some peace.
He's off the drugs.
He's off the drugs.
He's off the drugs.
Finally, god damn it.
His corpse still probably is chock full of them.
62 years old.
So, I mean, for making it, it's a pretty god damn heavy wildlife to make it 62 years.
I can't believe his heart held out for 62 years
I know
I'm really hoping
that Eddie Johnson
falls in his footsteps
and dies in 62 also
because Eddie Johnson
did way worse shit
than him
way worse
their lives were
perfectly mirrored
except for that
last thing
Eddie Johnson did
very parallel
right up until
Eddie Johnson's
most horrific shit
where go back
and listen to Eddie Johnson
if you want to hear about it
because it's horrible
and I'll go off
on a rant for a second
at least he never hurt children.
That's nice.
He didn't.
He was really nice to kids.
It's a happy story.
He was really nice to kids.
He was a fucking disaster
that I guess you didn't want
to be a woman around him.
You didn't want to be
a teammate
or an owner
or a coach of a team
that he was involved in
or anything like that.
But as far as kids go,
he was fine.
Unless,
I don't,
there's never any thoughts
of him,
you know,
I never heard any reports of him being naked dragging any of them across the balcony anyway so he's not dragging
children around uh the former providence teammate and he was at in 2014 he was a dallas maverick
scout kevin stackham who was also the director of the rebound foundation so he kept trying to
help marvin over the years uh he was going one that confirmed the death he said he was very close to marvin and stayed close to him and he said that marvin had
recently uh again been using on and off he had a couple years sobriety and then he was on and off
and uh we're not surprised stack them we're not surprised at all at marvin barnes's downfall here
and uh that's marvin barnes there it is wow dead at 62 finally get some Yeah, quite an entertaining life, though, I've got to say.
I mean, entertaining as far as, you know, a NASCAR car wreck is entertaining.
But entertaining nonetheless.
Entertaining for us.
For us, for you guys, hopefully, because what a fucking...
Unbelievable.
He had a lot going on.
He had the opportunity, and it's just over.
He could literally be an NBA Hall of Famer.
He could be on TNT.
He could be one of these elder statesmen.
He could be one of these guys that's like a vice president of a team or something like Elgin Baylor.
There could be gangsters wearing his throwback jersey.
Oh, absolutely.
There are people that wear his throwback jersey.
Oh, his St. Louis, Spirits of St. Louis Marvin Barnes jersey, that's a popular item.
Really?
Oh, because he was a, I mean, he's a cultural figure, man.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
He was like,
he had the pimp hat and the fur coat
with the Superman opening
and a bag of hamburgers.
I mean, dude,
he was the man.
So people know,
people are very, very aware
that, and they're buying
his stuff still.
They are.
So he was probably
getting paid from that
still too, right?
Don't they get a cut
of their jersey sales?
Maybe, maybe,
but it's not enough,
I would say.
It's not enough, no.
And I bet you
what didn't really happen. Probably sell them six a year. Yeah, and I bet the 30 for 30 helped a lot too. Maybe, maybe, but it's not enough. It's not enough. And I bet you what didn't really happen.
Probably sell them six a year.
Yeah, and I bet the 30 for 30 helped a lot, too.
Yeah, that'll do it.
That'll bring it back.
Because he was still alive for the 30 for 32.
So you've got a lot of Marvin Barnes, first-hand Marvin Barnes.
I love it.
He's in a barber shop at one point getting his hair cut,
and he's like, I was the best player on the damn floor.
I was the best player in the damn world.
Nobody could stop me.
Nobody.
He's the most arrogant, cocky about his game. He's like, I don't care. I was the best player on the damn floor i was best playing the damn world nobody could stop me nobody his he's the most arrogant cocky about his game he's like i don't care i was the greatest damn player anybody ever saw he goes mose and malone i'll take dr j to the hole i'll
take everybody i don't care like he was just going off i love it showing him like his basketball
i'm into arrogance i like that a lot and he had like an ego about his playing yeah like i was a
bad motherfucker nobody was as good as me and I found that shit endearing
because I was like
that's fucking cool
like he's
I don't know
it seemed like he was
doing well
while they shot
the documentary
at that very moment
he's probably on coke
so you felt good for him
yeah and in the documentary
they didn't really go
into his later life
it was about the
spirits of St. Louis
so once the league
folded it was like
and Marvin Barnes
had some problems
and now he's fine
that was it
now he's in a barber shop talking about how good he was.
That's so good.
So this is really kind of a concise, we go through the timeline and kind of get it done for you guys.
And I hope you enjoy that right there.
Once again, please remember the damn iTunes reviews, guys.
Please do.
We beg of you because that was fun and hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as I do.
Also remember to follow us on social media. Yeah. and sports on twitter facebook.com slash crime and sports crime
and sports at gmail.com drop us a line tell us some shit yeah if also too we've been giving you
people's like jail addresses write them like mark busby go nuts like crazy mark busby in australia
god we love australia our numbers are crazy in australia they're going crazy they're like
because it's awesome it's going person to person you are our continent australia we love Australia. Our numbers are crazy in Australia right now. They're going crazy. They're like, it's awesome. Because Buzzbee is going person to person.
You are our continent, Australia.
We love you, God damn it.
Yeah, it's Buzzbee knocking on every door.
Hello.
Hello.
I don't have an accent.
I'm not going to do an Australian accent.
Would you like to listen to a podcast?
Yeah, just banging on doors.
I picture him with like a dead koala hanging from it.
Listen to the podcast.
Listen to the podcast or I'll slap you with the wallaby.
Yeah, just koalas are, are they there or in China? Koalas are there and wallabies and kangaroos. hanging from it. Listen to the podcast. Listen to the podcast or I'll slap you with the wallaby.
Koalas are,
are they there or in China?
Koalas are there and wallabies and kangaroos.
Pandas are in China.
Pandas are in China.
All right, fine.
So, thank you guys though
for all you guys.
But we're,
we appreciate it a lot.
Make sure to get on the iTunes.
Do that.
Write those people letters.
Send us the emails.
We'll post it on our social media.
We'll have a blast with it.
Thanks to all the new listeners. Thanks to all the new listeners.
Thanks to all the old listeners.
We love you so much.
Next week is going to be awesome.
We're going to have another lunatic.
Jimmy, give them your social media.
At Wiseman Sucks, W-H-I-S-M-A-N Sucks.
That's Twitter and Instagram.
Beautiful.
I'm at Jimmy P is funny.
Find me there.
Whatever.
I'll talk shit to you.
But thanks again, guys.
Keep it going.
Tell your friends.
We don't, guys, we're comics keep it going tell your friends we don't
guys we're comics
we're not journalists
we don't have a podcast network
we're not in
like podcast
it's you guys
you guys are the only thing
spreading us
so honestly man
this is as organic
as it gets
it's grassroots
tell six people
and maybe one of them
will listen
and keep harassing them
and maybe they'll listen again
and maybe they'll tell six people
and if you do iTunes reviews
then they'll find us easier.
Right.
And people will be able to find us.
And then you can say, I listened to that from back then.
Yeah.
When those guys didn't know what the fuck they were doing, even less than they do now.
Right.
I listened to it when they were talking about Ray Caruth and there was very little jokes.
There was very little jokes.
But so Crime and Sports Movement.
Yes.
Thank you, guys.
We will see you next week hey prime
members you can listen to crime and sports early and ad free on amazon music download the amazon
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the wait is over so, you're not losing.
The only thing you're losing is my patience.
Quickly, I see that.
Bing!
The queen of the courtroom is back.
I didn't do anything.
You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face.
I see he's not intimidated by anything.
I can fix that.
New cases.
She wanted to fight me.
Leave her alone.
Okay, so, um...
This is not a so. This is a period.
Classic Judy.
Did you sleep with her?
Yes, Your Honor.
You married his cousin.
His brother.
That's not him.
Yes, ma'am.
I would make a beeline for the door.
The Emmy Award- winning series returns.
How did I know that?
I have a crystal ball in my head.
It's an all new season.
It's streaming.
You can say anything.
Judy Justice.
Only on Freebie.