For the first six years of his NBA career, Brent Barry was regarded as one of the league's top underachievers. At an athletic 6-6 and possessing skills commensurate with those of his father (Hall of Famer Rick) that allowed him to both win the NBA's Slam Dunk Championship during his rookie season and lead the league in three-point percentage last season, Barry should have been an All-Star, or at least one of the league's better guards. Instead, he became a bit of a nomad early in his career, heading first to Miami in a deadline deal for Isaac Austin, then to Chicago prior to the lockout season as Michael Jordan's replacement at shooting guard, and finally to Seattle for Hersey Hawkins the next summer. All told, it was four teams in approximately 18 months. After starting throughout his first year with the Sonics, Barry looked to have found a home, but during the summer the team drafted Desmond Mason, and then-coach Paul Westphal made Mason the starter at shooting guard from the beginning of training camp. When Westphal was dismissed, Mason was demoted -- but it was journeyman Emanual Davis, not Barry, who took his place.

It was little wonder, then, that many Sonics fans regarded Barry as a bit of an afterthought last summer while daydreaming about the potential that Mason possessed.

And it was also little wonder that those same fans -- even yours truly, though I was one of Barry's biggest backers, warming quickly to his game after not really appreciating it during his first season in Seattle -- were shocked when training camp started this year and Barry had regained his starting job just as suddenly as he had lost it the previous October.

In perhaps his most critical decision of the pre-season, Nate McMillan entrusted the role of shooting guard to Barry. Although the rationale was actually more because McMillan felt Mason would be better as an energy player off the bench, the Sonics would reap large dividends from re-pairing the only active NBA alumni of Oregon State University.

With each three-point dagger that Barry thrust directly into the heart of his opponent, the label of 'underachiever' slowly disappeared. Fans still weren't convinced. Would Barry wear out from playing heavy minutes for the first time in his career? Was this just an aberration? Instead of slowing down as the season went on, Barry picked up steam. When Vin Baker went out with dislocated toes in mid-February, Barry took on an increased role in the offense and played the best basketball of his NBA career.

His February numbers practically leap off the page at you: 17.7 points per game on 58% shooting. 58%! Sure, that's believable for a big man like Jelani McCoy or Todd MacCulloch who rarely shoots outside of five feet, but unheard of for a shooting guard. For an entire month's time, 13 games, Barry shot 52% from three-point range and 63% from inside the line. He also added over five assists and rebounds per game.

Barry's March numbers were nearly as good: 17.0 points per game on 51% shooting.

Taking his season as a whole, Barry's performance was impressive both relative to his previous play and his NBA contemporaries.

He set career-highs virtually across the board:
- Points (1164 to 945, a 23% increase)
- Minutes (3040 to 2726, an 11.5% increase)
- Rebounds (441 to 372, an 18.6% increase)
- Assists (426 to 291, a 46.4% increase)
- Steals (165 to 142, a 16.2% increase)

Barry's offensive efficiency was essentially unmatched by any other NBA player. He and Minnesota's Wally Szczerbiak were the only two players in the league to shoot at least 50% from the field, 40% from three-point range, and 80% from the free-throw line. Barry led the league in two-point shooting (58.8%), true shooting percentage (64.5%, beating his brother Jon, at 64% . . . calculated as points divided by two times (field goal attempts + .48 * free throw attempts)), and was third in offensive efficiency (1.091 points per possession . . . same as previous, except the dividend is not multiplied by two and turnovers are added to the field goals).

It would be one thing if Barry were just a shooter; he is not. He combines the passing of a point guard with the rebounding of a small forward to be one of the league's most versatile and well-rounded players. Barry finished 21st in the NBA in total assists; only one of the 20 players ahead of him (Kobe Bryant) was not a point guard. He was 59th in the NBA in rebounding; the only guards ahead of him were Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd. (Incidentally, did you realize that Barry led the Sonics in defensive rebounds? I didn't think so.) Kidd was the only NBA player to rank ahead of him in both categories; Bryant and Barry tied in rebounds. That, my friends, is what is referred to as 'elite company'.

Barry's ballhandling ability and his passing waere valuable assets for the Sonics. Only one other non-point guard (Portland's Scottie Pippen) bettered Barry in my 'pass rating' (assists squared divided by (turnovers * minutes)). Barry's ability helped the Sonics ease in rookie Earl Watson as the team's backup point guard and allowed Payton to spend more time than ever away from the ball, concentrating on scoring.

In addition to all that, Barry laid to rest another negative label attached to his game, that of inconsistency. After February 1, he scored double-digits in 35 of the team's final 36 games. The one time he didn't, March 7 against Charlotte, he had a decent excuse; he'd missed a game two days earlier with the flu and was still under the weather.

So if I was writing this column on April 18, the day after the conclusion of the regular season, it would surely have a different tone than it does now. Perhaps I'd have asked why Barry hasn't received the respect he is deserving of around the league? Why hadn't he received any consideration for the All-Star team? Was it possible to clone him to serve as a backup guard as well?

Then came the playoffs, and everything changed. If you're reading this column when it's first written, I'm sure I don't need to explain to you what happened during the Sonics' first round series against the San Antonio Spurs. However, I archive everything and am hoping this site is around for a little while, so, for the sake of fans from the future, the synopsis:

Barry no longer makes shots, he gets in foul trouble and barely plays in the Sonics' Game 2 win, he gets beat up under the physical defense of San Antonio's Bruce Bowen, he flat-out refuses to shoot in Game 4, and is zero factor in the first half of game five as the Sonics go down nearly 30 by halftime.

It was the time the Sonics needed Barry the most. Specifically, he was critical in Game 4. With Rashard Lewis injured, the Sonics started Barry, Payton, Mason, Vin Baker, and Vladimir Radmanovic. Mason and Radmanovic were both finishing their first playoff series, and Baker was too inconsistent to be counted on for anything. Barry should have been the Sonics' rock, the player (along with Payton) they turned to in their time of trouble.

But when the Sonics looked to Barry, he wasn't there. Or maybe his shot wasn't there . . . but that doesn't explain why when the calendar flipped over to May, Barry began making sixth-grade mental mistakes on the court, turning the ball over and throwing it directly to Spurs players.

In the first half of Game 5, Barry scored three points. The Sonics scored a team-record-low 26. Game, set, match San Antonio. With the game out of reach in the third quarter, Barry shook himself alive, making three more three-pointers to reach double-figures for the first time in the series. After scoring less than 10 points only once in the season's final 36 games, he did four straight times.

In hindsight, the warning signs were there. After the fantastic consecutive months of February and March, Barry's scoring had plunged perilously in April, as he dipped to 12.8 points on 45% shooting overall and 29% from three. But, then again, who on the team had played well in April, with the team coasting into the playoffs on a 2-6 final month?

Shouldn't the Spurs' strategy of using Bowen, one of the league's best perimeter defenders and a second- team All-Defense selection, have indicated that they intended to cut Barry out of the Sonics' offense? Well, sure, but intent and success are two different things. Barry had still managed 11 points and nine rebounds against Bowen in the Sonics' two-point loss at San Antonio on April 3 despite missing a significant chunk of the second half with a cut over his eye that required stitches.

All the analysis in the world is probably not enough to determine exactly why Barry struggled so much in Games 1-3. In the end, it was certainly a combination of a number of factors, including Bowen's defensive prowess and perhaps fatigue on Barry's part; the question is what proportion these factors were in. By Game 4, a different culprit had clearly taken hold: Confidence, or lack thereof. In one notable sequence, Barry passed up a good look to nearly travel, force a pass to the top of the key, and give Mason an essentially-unmakeable shot. Good shooters don't do they when they are confident about their shot.

I'd say that after Baker, Barry is the player on the Sonics for whom confidence seems to be most important. And a frightening thought is to think back and wonder whether Baker's decline in Seattle was really caused not by getting fat during the lockout but instead his poor playoffs in 1998. Might the same effect claim Barry's newfound success? I hope not . . . but the pessimistic side of me isn't certain.

There are those out there who have suggested, in the wake of the playoff struggles, that Barry ought to be traded this off-season. In some ways, it does make sense given the Sonics' paucity of interior players. If they could get a quality post player for Barry, it would be a difficult deal not to make. However, I cannot see a situation in which I, were I in charge, would trade Barry. As I've tried to explain throughout this column, I feel Barry is one of the most underrated players in the NBA and also one of the best shooting guards, as good as anyone outside of Bryant and McGrady. Five games won't convince me otherwise.

In non-basketball considerations, Barry has a number of assets. His leadership was important for the team this year; Barry spoke in every team huddle, keeping the team loose or firing it up, depending on the situation. He is, by all accounts, a class act off the court who has become an extremely player amongst Sonics fans for his quick wit and outgoing nature. And his contract, once deemed an albatross by Chicago when the Bulls dumped him off for the nearly-finished Hawkins, now seems like a bargain.

Barry's personality has to be considered. If Howard Schultz and Wally Walker were to trade one of their most popular players, one who has a stellar reputation, it would ring of hypocrisy given the new ownership group's mantra over the last year.

No, I don't believe Barry will be going anywhere . . . except, hopefully, to Atlanta next February -- and not just for the Three-Point shootout.