Bernard King

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Bernard King was born on December 4, 1956, in Brooklyn, New York. He developed his basketball skills on the playgrounds of Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. King attended the University of Tennessee, where he had a successful collegiate basketball career. After playing college basketball for the Tennessee Volunteers, the New York Nets selected King with the seventh overall pick in the 1977 NBA draft. Months later, the Nets relocated from Uniondale, New York, to New Jersey and became known as the New Jersey Nets. In his rookie season, King set a New Jersey Nets franchise record for most points scored in a season with 1,909, at 24.2 points per game. He would surpass this record with his 2,027-point season in 1983–84. King played for the Utah Jazz in the 1979–80 season and averaged 9.3 points per game in 19 games. The Jazz traded King to the Golden State Warriors before the 1980–81 season. Just before the start of the 1982–83 season, King was traded to the New York Knicks in exchange for Micheal Ray Richardson. On January 31 and February 1, 1984, King became the first player since Rick Barry in 1967 to score at least 50 points in consecutive games. The next season, on Christmas Day, 1984, King scored 60 points against the New Jersey Nets. At the peak of his career, King suffered a devastating injury to his right leg on March 23, 1985, causing him to miss all of the 1985–86 season. He was released by the Knicks at the end of the 1987 season. King spent the 1987–88 season with the Washington Bullets. After a year-and-a-half hiatus due to yet another knee injury, King returned for a 32-game stint with the New Jersey Nets at the end of the 1992–93 season, until knee problems forced him to retire from the NBA permanently.

In Their Own Story

The defining moment of King's tenure in New York arrived on Christmas Day, 1984, when he lit up his former team, the New Jersey Nets, for 60 points. In a losing effort, King scored 40 points by halftime and finished with 19 of 30 shooting from the field and an incredible 22 of 26 from the free throw line, becoming just the tenth player in NBA history to reach that mark. However, his peak was cut short on March 23, 1985, while attempting to block a dunk by Kansas City Kings' Reggie Theus. King suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, torn meniscus, and lateral condyle fracture of the femur. This devastating injury caused him to miss the entire 1985–86 season. No NBA player had previously returned to form after such a career-ending injury, yet King rehabilitated in complete secrecy. Although he averaged 22.7 points per game in his first six games back, he lacked his pre-injury explosiveness and was released by the Knicks at the end of the 1987 season.

Reader's Guide

Bernard King retired with 19,655 points in 874 games, good for a 22.5 points per game average. He was a four-time NBA All-Star, four-time All-NBA selection, and led the NBA in scoring in the 1984–85 season with 32.9 points per game. Basketball legend Julius Erving said King was the toughest player he had ever faced.

Did You Know?

• Bernard King was selected by the New York Nets with the seventh overall pick in the 1977 NBA draft before the team relocated to New Jersey.
• King set a New Jersey Nets franchise record for most points in a season as a rookie with 1,909 points.
• He became the first player since Rick Barry in 1967 to score at least 50 points in consecutive games, doing so on January 31 and February 1, 1984.
• King scored 60 points on Christmas Day, 1984, becoming just the tenth player in NBA history to score 60 or more points in a single game.
• After a devastating knee injury in 1985, King returned to average 28.4 points per game at age 34 with the Washington Bullets.