Gene Littles: "One time Marvin was late for practice in training camp. Bob MacKinnon asked him why he was late and Marvin said," I lost my car in a lot downtown." MacKinnion said, "What kind of car is it?" Marvin said, "A Bentley." There couldn't have been 3 Bentleys in all of St. Louis. A blind man could pick out a Bentley in a parking lot."
Bob Costas: " In my mind, the symbol of the Spirits will always be Marvin Barnes tooling down the street in his Rolls-Royce. He'd spot some kids at the corner, stop and pick them up and drive them in that big car to an ice cream stand, where he'd treat them, then drive them home. He felt like the Pied Piper, and he was nothing more than a big kid himself. But this was the same Marvin Barnes who must have missed 100 personal appearances in his 2 years-everything form lunches to charity events to boys clubs. He was constantly giving away tennis shoes and shirts to kids on the street."
Rudy Martzke:" Before the 1st game in which Marvin played Caldwell Jones, someone told Marvin that Caldwell was a great defensive player. Apparently Marvin want to show that no one could stop him, because he went out and took Jones apart for something like 51 points and 30 rebounds. He looked like the best player ever to wear a uniform that night."
Bob Costas: Marvin had a great night against San Diego one night. He scores 48 points. After the game I saw him in the dressing room and started giving me his State of the Spirits speech. He told me, " Bro, you know what's wrong with this team? We don't have any team play. We don't care about each other. I thought, "Maybe Marvin is starting to see what the problem is-this team has no unity." Then Marvin continued, "Let me give you an example. Tonight, I had 48 points with 2 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 at 48. Stuff like that; that's what's wrong with these guys." The mental world of Marvin Barnes was a bizarre place. Marvin never really had an Afro. The players called him "BB", because his head was supposedly as small as a BB.
Don Chaney: One day, Marvin came into the dressing room with a 9-millimeter gun. He started pointing it at people and guys were hitting the floor. We figured he had finally freaked out, but he was just messing around. He didn't have a magazine in the gun. I don't know how many times I saw him stay out all night get about an hour's sleep and the score 35 points. His pregame meal usually was hamburgers, hot dogs, and Twinkies."
Rod Thorn: Marvin showed up for those playoffs. He showed what a great talent he was. But even then, I head a story that before one of the playoff games, Marvin ate a huge helping of nacho chips in the dressing room while he was changing into his uniform. Most guys would throw up doing that, but he went out and played like King Kong against us.
Bob Costas: Very early in Marvin's rookie year, a story came out about him having 13 telephones in his six-room condo. It wasn't true, as it turned out, but suddenly, "13 telephones" became the watchword for Marvin.
Warner Fusselle: I once had Marvin on a postgame show and I asked him about the 13 phones. He said, "No man, I ain't got no 13 phones. :let's see, I got one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, two in the bedroom..." He named about 7 different places that had phones. By then, we both were laughing so hard that we had to stop."
Bob Costas: " Making airplanes just about killed Marvin. I'm trying to remember a morning flight where Marvin was on the plane. There were few-very, very few. In the Spirits' two years, they would take an 8 A.M. flight the morning of the game to Kentucky. There must have been 15 of those flights in 2 years. And I know for a fact Marvin never made one. Not a single one. It also was just a given that he'd miss the 11 A.M. shoot around in Kentucky. Once, he got the itinerary for that trip and noticed that the flight was exactly one hour. Because of the change of time zones, our return flight would leave Louisville at 8 A.M. and arrive in St. Louis at 7:59. Marvin looked at that and announced, " I ain't going' on no time machine. I ain't takin' no flight that takes me back in time."
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The classic Marvin Barnes story came when they played a game in New York and the next day they had a game at Norfolk. The Spirits had an early-morning flight out of LaGuardia and, naturally, Marvin wasn't there.
Bob MacKinnon: Next, I called Marvin and said," Marvin, if you don't get to the game, I'm gonna have to suspend you. I'm not kidding this time." Marvin said, "Don't worry man." Then he hung up.
Rudy Martzke: About three in the afternoon, I got a call from MacKinnon. He said that Marvin missed the 9 AM., the 11 A.M. and the 1 P.M. flights to Norfolk. He hadn't heard from Marvin and figured there was no way Marvin would make the game.
Bob Costas: When Marvin finally got to LaGuardia, he found that all the flights to Norfolk were gone, and he was in real trouble. He started explaining his plight to some people and was told that the only way he could get to Norfolk was to charter a plane. So he cut a deal and got a private plane to take him to Norfolk. The plane landed and Marvin got a cab to rush him to the arena. About 10 minutes before the game, Bob MacKinnon was at the blackboard talking strategy, especially what they would do without Marvin that night. There were some double doors at the back of the dressing room and Marvin burst through the doors wearing a huge grin and proclaimed, "Boys, game time is on time."
Steve Jones: Marvin was wearing a big, wide-brimmed hat and his floor length, $10,000 mink coat. He had a bag of McDonald's hamburgers and fries with him. Then he proclaimed," Have no fear, BB is here." He opened the coat, and underneath he was wearing his Spirits uniform.
Bob Costas: MacKinnon didn't stat Marvin that night, but he put him late in the first quarter and Marvin ended up with 43 points and 19 rebounds. The funny thing was that late in the first half, the pilot of the charter flight appeared by the Spirits/ huddle. He wanted to be paid right now and he wasn't about to trust Marvin to send him a check through the mail. So Marvin sent his trainer in to the dressing room to get his checkbook. During the next time-out, while everyone else was huddled around MacKinnon, Marvin was standing up with sweat pouring off his face and saying," Hey, man who should I write this check out to?" He wrote the pilot a check right in the middle of the game."
