At 6'7" and 205 pounds, Bernard King epitomized the NBA small forward of the 1980s. While arguably not as explosive as many of his peers, King was known as a tremendous scorer, leading the NBA in scoring in 1985 with 32.9 points per game. He was twice selected to the All-NBA First Team and three times to the NBA All-Star Game.

In 1977-78, his rookie season, he set a New Jersey Nets franchise record for most points scored in a season with 1,909. He would later surpass this record with his 2,027 point season in '83-84, earning the first of his back-to-back All-NBA First Team selections.

On January 31, 1984, as a Knick, King made history by becoming the first player since 1964 to score at least 50 points in consecutive games: scoring 50 points on 20 for 23 shooting with 10 free throws in a 117-113 Knicks victory over the San Antonio Spurs on January 30, and following it up with another 50 point performance in another road victory - this time in a 105-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks - on 20 for 28 shooting and 10 free throws. The next season, on Christmas day, 1984, King lit up the New Jersey Nets for 60 points, becoming just the tenth player in NBA history to score more than 60 points in a single game.

At the peak of his career, however, King suffered a devastating knee injury. It required major reconstruction, causing him to miss all of the 1985-86 season and all but the final six games of the 1986-87 campaign. Despite averaging 22.7 points per game during his first six games back, it was clear that King's explosiveness was diminished, and this prompted the New York Knicks to release him at the end of the 1987 season.

However, King would have a very successful comeback with the Washington Bullets, improving his scoring average each year with the squad and returning to the All-Star Game one last time in 1991, his final full season in the NBA. After a year-and-a-half hiatus and a brief 32-game stint with the New Jersey Nets at the end of the '93 season, knee problems forced Bernard King into retirement. King retired with 19,665 points in 874 games, for an average of 22.5 points per game during his career. At the time of his retirement, King ranked 16th on the all-time NBA scoring list.

Basketball