Joe Barry Carroll, a No. 1 NBA Draft Pick, Straight Up Became a Fine Arts Connoisseur

Formerly “in the paint”; Now into painting.

Next month, Fort Smith native Jahlil Okafor could be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. If he is, the 6’11” center will be the third Arkansan native to go No. 1 in a major American team sport since Joe Barry Carroll in 1980. Okafor spent his childhood in the Ft. Smith area before moving to a bigger metro area in Chicago. Carroll, meanwhile, spent some of his elementary school days in Pine Bluff before his mother shepherded her large family to Denver.

There, among the Rockies, Carroll grew to seven feet tall and became a prized recruit. He then became a legendary player at Purdue, leading the Boilermakers to the 1980 Final Four while racking up 26.3 points a game.

I’ve written about Carroll’s lofty place among NBA Arkansans in multiple statistical categories, but I hadn’t seen much about his roots in Arkansas until the following news showed up in my inbox.

It turns out Carroll has become both a painter and writer who has been contemplating his Arkansan roots. Now living in Georgia, Carroll will return to his home state this fall for an exhibit in Little Rock:

“The Historic Arkansas Museum will host the contemporary art exhibit, “Growing Up . . . In Words and Images” by NBA All Star, Joe Barry Carroll. The exhibition will open in Historic Arkansas Museum’s Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists during 2^nd Friday Art Night on September 11 from 5 to 8 pm. The opening reception will include a gallery talk with Carroll and a book signing in the Museum Store. 

The exhibition will include paintings from Carroll’s memoir coffee table book of the same name. The colorful and evocative acrylic and mixed media paintings have been described as “folk” and “impressionistic.” The paintings explore what Carroll refers to as “shared humanity”—childhood, dreams, family ties, southern culture and self-discovery.  In “Growing Up,” Carroll’s southern-comfort prose reveals the life of a boy who seemed “to not be enough of any one particular thing to be the right thing.”

Born the tenth of thirteen children, Carroll was raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Denver, Colorado, where his mother supported the family as a domestic worker, fry cook, and eventually a nurse’s aide. He dreamed of saving the day for his family and writes, “Every time I witnessed my mother’s defeat and difficulty as another dream died, I resolved to make it all better one day.”

Carroll led the Purdue University Boilermakers to the Final Four in 1980 and graduated with a degree in Economics. Carroll was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. He would go on to play for Milano (Italy), the Houston Rockets, New Jersey Nets, Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns. Carroll is now a wealth advisor, philanthropist, painter and writer.

Historic Arkansas Museum is open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 – 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the galleries and parking are free; admission to the historic grounds is $2.50 for adults, $1 for children under 18, $1.50 for senior citizens. The Historic Arkansas Museum Store is open 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 – 4 p.m. on Sunday.”

Carroll, it turns out, had the seventh-highest scoring performance in NCAA Tournament history in 1980. Interestingly, the number one player on that list – Glen Rice – apparently was born in Jacksonville, Ark. before moving to Michigan as a baby or toddler. 

In the early 1980s, Carroll was one of league’s best men while playing for the Golden State Warriors, which is now the favorite to win the NBA Finals according to sports handicappers. He averaged more than twenty points per game in seven seasons there and made the All-Star Game in 1987.  Overall, Carroll played 12 seasons with a career high average of 24 points in the 1983-84 season. 
 

Below is more about Carroll’s wide-ranging past, via his official biography:

 

At the age of twenty-six 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, the Georgia Innocence Project, and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station. 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.

During his NBA career Carroll developed a model to invest and manage his NBA earnings. After retiring from professional basketball he founded The Carroll Group a wealth advisory firm in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1993. Carroll continues to manage the company and share his expertise with other professional athletes. 

 After collecting art for many years Carroll decided to try his hand at painting and soon developed a style that has been characterized in a variety of ways, including impressionistic and folk. Seventy of his paintings appear in Growing Up … In Words and Images. He also travels the country for book signings and to exhibit his art. Carroll is a member of the Retired NBA Players Association and is a board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA). 

PS – What is it with sports stars with Arkansas and art world connections who also include “Joe” in either their first or middle names? Bobby Joe Edmonds, a star Razorback running back and Seattle Seahawks, returned to Fayetteville and has worked as a fine arts dealer.

PSS – Carroll isn’t the only south Arkansan-turned-NBA Draft pick to seriously dabble in the arts. Crossett native Jeremy Evans, now of the Utah Jazz, has shown serious chops as a pencil artist since childhood and told me a couple years ago he would consider becoming a graphic artist after his playing days.

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