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Looking forany autographBernard King
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Bernard King: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you own something he signed — or you know who might — there is a note at the foot of this page.
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 — a torn ACL, a torn meniscus and 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, fell in what he later called the darkest period 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
A card. A photo. A program. A page from an old autograph book. Anything he put his name on.
You do not need to know what it is. Take a photo with your phone and send it to me. I will tell you what you have, for free, whether or not anything comes of it. I pay the postage both ways. I answer every message myself, usually the same day.
With the Jazz
BERNARD KING · 1979–80 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979–80 | UTA | 19 | 22.1 | 9.3 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | .518 | — | .540 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 1 SEASON | 19 | 22.1 | 9.3 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | .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 High School.
- 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.