Joe Barry Carroll

High school career

Carroll, a 7'0" center, attended Denver East High School, located in Denver, Colorado, where he was selected as an All-American by Midwest Coach and Athlete Magazine. In his senior year, he averaged 20.3 points and 12.2 rebounds a game, while scoring 41 points in one contest.

1976–1977

After high school, Carroll moved on to play college basketball at Purdue University. Under head coach Fred Schaus, he helped lead the Boilermakers to a 20-8 record. In Carroll's first national televised appearance, against Indiana, he scored 12 points, had 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 20 minutes coming off the bench in a 86–76 win. On December 10, 1977, he recorded the school's only triple-double with 16 points, 16 rebounds and a single-game school record 11 blocks. He recorded 206 rebounds and averaged 7.4 a game in his first season, the most for a Purdue freshman. Carroll also holds the freshman record for most blocks in a season with 82.

1977–1978

Carroll set school records with 105 blocks on the season and averaged 3.9 blocks per game as a sophomore. With senior Walter Jordan, he helped lead the team to a 16–11 record and a fourth-place finish in conference play.

1978–1979

Head coach Fred Schaus stepped down in 1978 and was replaced by Lee Rose. Playing with a slowed down, controlled system compared to Schaus' fast-pace style, Carroll and senior point guard Jerry Sichting led Purdue to a first place Big Ten tie with an Earvin Johnson-led Michigan State. Not receiving the favor of the two teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament, Carroll led Purdue to the NIT Finals his junior year, losing to in-state rivals, Indiana. He averaged 22.8 points a game on the season and was named First Team All-Big Ten and a Third Team All-American, while leading the Boilers to a 27–8 record. He grabbed a school record 352 rebounds on the season.

1979–1980

During his senior year, he led the Boilermakers to an NCAA Final Four appearance, losing to UCLA in the semi-finals. They won the consolation game against Iowa, where Carroll scored a game-high 35 points in his last game as a Boilermaker. Leading Purdue to a 23–10 record on the season, he was named a First Team All-American and a second straight First Team All-Big Ten selection. He played 1,235 minutes on the season, the most by any player in school history.

College notes

Carroll holds the all-time school records for career rebounds (1,148) and blocks (349). With 2,175 points in his Purdue career, he ranks second to Rick Mount. He majored in economics at Purdue University.

1980–1981

Carroll was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the first overall pick of the 1980 NBA draft. Many have labeled Carroll as one of the biggest busts in NBA Draft history, giving him the nicknames "Joe Barely Cares" and "Just Barely Carroll" for his perceived indifference to the game. A great deal of Carroll's negative press, however, can reasonably be attributed to the fact that he often declined interviews and the fact that the Warriors traded Robert Parish and the draft choice used to select Kevin McHale to the Boston Celtics for the first overall pick used to select Carroll. During his first few seasons, however, Carroll was actually a very productive player. He averaged 18.9 points and 9.3 rebounds as a rookie. He scored a game high of 46 points and led the Warriors with 121 blocks during his first season, while being named an NBA All-Rookie First Team selection.

1981–1984

Two seasons later, he averaged a career high 24.1 points to go along with 8.7 rebounds. On March 5, 1983, he scored 52 points against the Utah Jazz. To the surprise of many, Carroll left the Warriors in 1984 to play in Italy for Simac Milano. With Simac Milano, he won both the Italian League Championship, was selected to the All-League team and won the FIBA Korac Cup.

1985–1987

He returned to the NBA for the 1985–86 season and averaged 21.2 points for two consecutive seasons under head coach George Karl. He was named to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game, where he scored 4 points and had 6 rebounds in 18 minutes. Joe Barry played in his first playoff game against the Utah Jazz in the 1987 NBA Playoffs, where he helped lead the team to the Western Conference Semifinals, losing to eventual champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Throughout his career as a Warrior, he is a top ten career franchise leader in defensive rebounds (3rd), offensive rebounds (4th), points per game (8th), total points (9th) and steals (9th). He scored at least 1,000 points in each of his seasons as a Warrior. He left Golden State as the franchise leader in blocks with 837, which is currently the second most behind Adonal Foyle's 1,090 from 1997 to 2007.

1987–1988

After his last full season with the Warriors in the 1986–87 season, his production began to decline. In December, 1987, he was traded with Sleepy Floyd to the Houston Rockets for Ralph Sampson and Steve Harris to play under head coach Bill Fitch. Carroll averaged just 12.7 points during that season, where he averaged 20 or more a game the four prior seasons. He helped lead the Rockets to an NBA Playoff appearance, losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the first round.

1988–1991

Carroll was traded to the New Jersey Nets for the 1988–89 season, where he averaged 14.1 points a game and shot 80 percent from the free throw line. He was traded in the middle of the 1989–90 season to the Denver Nuggets for Michael Cutright on February 21, 1990, where he averaged 10 points a game and appeared in the first round of the 1990 NBA Playoffs, losing to the San Antonio Spurs. Joe Barry Carroll played his last NBA season for the Phoenix Suns. Only playing in 11 games and averaging 3.4 points, he shot a career high .917 percent from the line.

Career notes

Carroll retired from the NBA in 1991. He ended his career with totals of 12,455 points and 5,404 rebounds, topping 20+ points a game in scoring for 4 seasons. He appeared in 19 playoff games, where he averaged 27 minutes, 5 rebounds and 13.7 points per game.

Over his career, he averaged 17.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1 steal, 1.6 blocks per game, with a .474 field goal and .747 free throw percentage in 705 games. He averaged 32 minutes of playing time per game.

After retirement

Carroll is currently an investment advisor, author, and painter living outside of Atlanta.

At the age of 26, Carroll established the BroadView Foundation to financially support and participate in organizations and programs that serve lower socio-economic groups and individuals in communities of color. In addition to establishing college scholarships, Carroll and BroadView have funded afterschool programs, elder care, Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers, True Colors Theatre, Task Force for the Homeless, and Georgia Innocence Project. In 2013, Carroll expanded his support of the Georgia Innocence Project by fully funding the salary for a full-time staff position. All proceeds from Joe Barry Carroll Publishing are donated to selected nonprofit entities including the Georgia Innocence Project.

In 1993, he founded The Carroll Group, a wealth advisory company located in Atlanta. Carroll advises high-net-worth families and professional athletes.

Joe Barry Carroll published the memoir, "Growing Up . . . In Words and Images" (Joe Barry Carroll Publishing, joebarrycarroll.com 2014), a 262-page coffee table book that contains paintings by Carroll and narratives about life as the tenth of 13 children growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and Denver, Colorado, life in the NBA and creating a fulfilling life after retiring from professional basketball. The book has received praise from Tony Award winning Broadway stage, Television and Film Director Kenny Leon; Emory University Associate Professor of Art History and African American Studies, Michael D. Harris; Atlanta Daily World Publisher, M. Alexis Scott; and WABE/NPR Director of Arts and Cultural Programming, Lois Reitzes.

In 2014 Carroll received the Hank Aaron Champion for Justice award from the Atlanta Braves and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in recognition of his ongoing philanthropy and activism.