Former Providence, ABA star Marvin Barnes dead at 62

By Phil Watson | Sep 8, 2014

Marvin Barnes, a star at Providence College and in the old ABA, is dead at the age of 62. /

Marvin Barnes, an All-American at Providence who teamed with guards Ernie DiGregorio and Kevin Stacom to lead the Friars to the Final Four in 1973 before becoming a star in the old American Basketball Association, has died at the age of 62.

According to a Providence College news release, Barnes was one of the greatest players in school history. Barnes averaged 18.3 points and 19 rebounds per game as a junior during the Final Four season and came back as a senior to score 22.1 points a game and led the nation with 18.7 rebounds per game.

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Barnes was the No. 2 overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Draft, but opted to sign with the Spirits of St. Louis in the ABA. He averaged 24 points and 15.6 rebounds per game as a rookie with the Spirits, earning All-ABA and Rookie of the Year honors, before leading St. Louis to an upset of the defending ABA champion New York Nets and Julius Erving in the first round of the playoffs.

Barnes was as well known for his off-court activities as he was for his on-court skills and it wound up cutting his career short.

Barnes was nicknamed “Bad News” and spent the summer between the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons in a Rhode Island prison after an attack on a former Providence teammate followed by a probation violation for taking having a pistol in his luggage while boarding a flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in October 1976.

He was a free spirit, to be sure. According to a 1977 Sports Illustrated profile, Barnes once missed a Spirits team flight to Virginia, chartered a plane, arrived after the game had started … and scored 53 points.

Barnes told AOL Fanhouse in 2009 that he knew he wasted his career (per Riverfront Times).

"“I would have been one of the 50 greatest players of all time. I was one of the five best players on the planet, period (with St. Louis). Just ask anybody back then … I was kicking some butt. … But I was going on a downhill spiral. I met drug traffickers in St. Louis and they showed me another way of life. And that was detrimental to my basketball career.”"

Barnes played two seasons with the Spirits before the franchise folded as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 and then spent four seasons in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons, Buffalo Braves, Boston Celtics and San Diego Clippers.