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Forward · 1979–80

Bernard King

Forged on the Fort Hamilton playgrounds of Brooklyn and at Tennessee, King scored 1,909 points as a Nets rookie in 1977–78. Utah got only a glimpse — 19 games in 1979–80 — before trading him to Golden State, where the climb resumed. With the Knicks came back-to-back 50-point games in 1984, 60 on Christmas Day, and the 1984–85 scoring title at 32.9 a game.

No NBA player had ever returned to form from the kind of knee injury he suffered in 1985 — torn ligaments, torn cartilage, a fractured femur. King rebuilt alone, away from the cameras, and by 1991 was averaging 28.4 points for Washington at age 34, an All-Star once more. The Hall of Fame called in 2013.

HOW HE CAME & WENTNew Jersey traded him to Utah in 1979 after his off-court troubles. The single season that followed, the franchise's first in Salt Lake City, was the low point of his life, and the Jazz traded him to Golden State that summer.

Utah Jazz tenure
1979–80
Position
Forward
Born
1956, Brooklyn, New York
Height
6′7″ (201 cm)
Weight
205 lb (93 kg)
College
Tennessee
Drafted
1977, 1st round (No. 7), New Jersey
Signature in the archive 2023-24 Panini Immaculate Collection - Immaculate Signatures ...

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With the Jazz

BERNARD KING · 1979–80 · PER GAME
SEASONTEAMGMPGPPGRPGAPGSPGBPGFG%3P%FT%
1979–80UTA1922.19.34.62.70.40.2.518.540
JAZZ TOTAL1 SEASON1922.19.34.62.70.40.2.518.540

Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗  ·  Wikipedia ↗

Did you know

BERNARD KING · 8 NOTES
  • His Utah stay lasted only 19 games before the team moved on — five years later he was the NBA's scoring champion. The Jazz caught him at the bottom of the arc, not the top.
  • His younger brother Albert King also had a long NBA career — the two were consecutive New York City prep legends at Fort Hamilton and Fort Greene.
  • Julius Erving called him the toughest player he ever faced.
  • At Tennessee he and Ernie Grunfeld were billed as the Ernie and Bernie Show and made the cover of Sports Illustrated.
  • He was a three-time SEC Player of the Year for the Volunteers.
  • Tennessee retired his No. 53 in 2007, the first jersey the school ever retired — he had not been back in thirty years because nobody had asked him.
  • He is a serious art collector who has lent works to museums and helped bring an August Wilson play to Broadway.
  • He appeared on Miami Vice as a basketball star whose judge father was played by Bill Russell.