WATERVILLE — Rick Barry hasn’t changed much over the years. Sure his gait has lost a step and he may get up out his chair a little slower, but he still has a great deal of passion for the game of basketball.

That passion was on display Saturday at Thomas College where the basketball Hall of Famer held a clinic for area coaches. To no surprise, the 65-year old stressed teaching young players the fundamentals of the game, something Barry was known for during his playing days.

“To me, that is what the game is about,” says Barry. “Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals.”

“Foundation of what you do in life is critical,” he says. “The more you teach them fundamentals, the bigger the foundation you’re putting down. If they have talent and skill, they’re going to be able become as good as they can be. If they don’t have the foundation, they’ll only get to a certain level.”

Barry won scoring titles in the NCAA, ABA and NBA. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was selected as one of the NBA’s top 50 players of all-time in 1996. He was also part of championship teams on both the ABA and NBA.

Barry’s father was instrumental in helping him become a great basketball player. The former semi-pro player and coach was a strict disciplinarian who showed his son the proper way to play ball. Practice to the future hall of famer was more fun than work.

“For me, it wasn’t a lot of hard work,” remembers Barry.” It was fun. My father laid that foundation for me. So I understood what the game was about and how the game should be played. Fundamentally, I was very sound. When I went out to play, I was able to maximize the God-given talent that I had. I was fortunate to have been blessed with some of that.”

His father was the person encouraging him to practice his famous underhanded foul shot. He is grateful for his father’s relentlessness in getting him to convert to what Barry then called a “sissy shot.” While he was worried what people would say when he shot his free throws, the 80 percent accuracy the first season he utilized the unorthodox form helped him get over any possible teasing.

“I put a sincere effort into it,” says Barry. “I realized that, ‘wait a minute, this is pretty good. I’ll live with the fact I’ll get teased.'”

“It’s a great feel, it’s a very soft touch shot. It’s a natural position. You don’t get tense, you don’t get tight. It’s very easy to control.”

These days, Barry remains active not just in running basketball clinics and making speeches, he also enjoys the outdoor life in Colorado where he has lived for the past 23 years. An avid hunter and fisherman, he has kept busy co-hosting hunting shows. He also keeps himself in great shape playing tennis, mountain biking and golf among other activities.

He still pays close attention to the NBA and cites Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James and Dwyane Wade as some of the better fundamentally sound players, but he also sees room for improvement not only in their games, but in the overall play of the league. He sees the fundamentals lacking overall. He pointed out a flaw in James’ shooting form

“Some of the players just don’t do the fundamental things,” he says. “Watch an NBA game and tell me how many times you see when the ball goes up everybody screens their man off. It’s not happening. You learn in the program, it’s a simple thing. When the shot goes up, you screen your man off the boards.

“It’s hard to watch, the way they run the pick and roll play. They come from angles that if I were a player today, I’d tell them, ‘Hey get out of here, I don’t want that screen.’ Why do I want to go away from the basket? I want to go toward the basket. Screens come off the wrong angle. But they still do some amazing things. It’s incredible what some of these guys do. ”

Barry feels the NBA athletes have benefited from the weight programs and diets that weren’t available to him during his playing days. While he would spend time playing the game at the local park or just shooting around, players today have more opportunities to improve their game. And he sees there’s more for them to learn.

“I like to see greatness. As great as some of these guys are, they would be greater if they had these fundamental principals and concepts,” feels Barry. “I don’t blame them. I blame the coaches that they’ve had. It’s the coaches who are responsible for teaching these things. A lot of these kids have been short-changed throughout their career. ”

The 1974-75 NBA season still gives Barry his fondest memories of the game. That year he had what he calls his finest individual season, leading the league in steals and free throw percentage while finishing in the top 10 for assists and runner-up to Buffalo’s Bob McAdoo in scoring with a 30.6 points per game average. But Barry fell short in his best bid for an MVP honor, which went to McAdoo.

“It was a joke that I wasn’t the MVP of the league. I would have been if it had been voted on by the writers, but it was voted on by the players and the players let things get personal. Not only did I not win, I came in third.”

While the MVP eluded him during his career, a NBA championship ring did not. That same season, his Golden State Warrior club swept the heavily-favored Washington Bullets in four straight games to win the title.

“It’s not about individual honors,” he says. “It’s about winning. (And) you know what, I got the championship ring. The fact that I didn’t get the MVP that season, that’s OK. I can live with it. I have the championship and those guys (don’t). To win the championship and be the MVP of the championship series was pretty special. It was a great season”

And a pretty darned good career.