If you’re a youngster, you probably thought the title referred to Lebron, a.k.a. King James. But the man who was, is and always will be the ruler – the King of New York before Frank White, the notorious one and jigga – perched comfortably on the throne with the gold crown tilted to the side as the royal subjects fawned, is none other than Brooklyn’s own Bernard King.
What does Bernard King mean to the streets NY and those players with hoop dreams that ran on the playgrounds in the early to mid ’80s? Ask Chibbs, a.k.a Kenny Anderson –
Before he came out the gate as a rookie with the Nets in ‘78 dropping 39 against the Lakers, 44 on the Suns, and 41 against the 6′ers, prompting Doc to call him “Deadly!”, Bernard honed his games on the Brooklyn playgrounds. By the time he was finished marinating on the New York City asphalt, he dropped jaws in college by destroying the comp as a freshman at Tennesee.
Born and raised in the Fort Greene projects, where some of his extended family still resides, there were basketball courts on both sides of his apartment building.
”That’s where I developed my love for basketball,” King told Dave Anderson of the NYTimes in ‘04. ”That’s where I honed my skills.”
And, for the uninitiated, those skills were a beauty to behold. Bernard was an explosive terror on the block, with a subtly gorgeous bump and fade baseline booty/jimmy game.
With long arms and hands faster than Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather, this is how it usually went down – entry pass, spin, rise and a kodak in the grill quicker than a hiccup. With his teams consistently lacking another major threat to offset him, Bernard had to consistently disable double teams for buckets, averaging 23 ppg on 52% shooting over his distinguished pro career.
After a few personal roadbumps with Jersey, Utah and Golden State, Bernard saved his best for when he got to the Knicks in ‘82-’83. In early ‘84 he posted the back-to-back 50 point outbursts on the Spurs and the Mavs, otherwise referred to as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In the season that truly mattered, he singlehandedly led the Knicks to a 3-2 playoff series victory of Detroit, dropping 40 in four games and 36 in the other.
He scorched for a 35 point avg in those playoffs before the team bowed out to Boston in the semis. And be advised that Boston, who needed all seven games to beat the Knicks in the series, won the whole shebang. In ‘84, while the media selected Larry Bird as league MVP, THE PLAYERS, in a poll for The Sporting News, selected Bernard King.
But it was that next year, ‘84-’85, that Knick fans were briefly visited by Santa before the Grinch came through. B-King led the entire league with 33 joints per and on X-mas day, put in 60 (still the franchise record) against the Nets.
He terrorized Jersey again in early February for 55 – “fiddy five!” was how we excitedly greeted each other in the park that day, cold weather be damned. But the dream ended with the knee injury in Kansas City that took two full years to recover from. If all the planets were aligned properly, Bernard was suppossed to run with the young Patrick Ewing and Boston, feel me on this one, would have had more problems than DMX.
photo: nba.com
Bernard came back in ‘86-’87 with the Bullets, dropping in 17 per. He gave the league the old man business in ‘90-’91, averaging 28 ppg, third only to MJ and The Mailman. What made it so remarkable was how his game transformed after the injury. On bad wheels, he became a face up and slashing threat.
And then there’s baby bro Albert, who took big bro’s beat-downs and instruction to become the #1 high schooler in the country, a star at Maryland and a first round pick in his own right.
The Hall of Fame will never be legit, in my mind, until Bernard King is enshrined.
“I have never feared anybody that I’ve played against – Bird, Magic, Doctor, Michael – and I respect and love all of those guys,” The Human Highlight Film, Dominique Wilkins told John Hareas of NBA.com. “Bernard King is the only guy that ever scared the hell out of me.”
He did it in the ’80s when, other than MJ and Magic, forwards ran things. Doc, Alex English, McHale, Worthy, Aguirre, Dantley, ‘Nique and Barkley. But nobody was more prolific or unstoppable in any one game than King.
“Bernard went toe-to-toe with every small forward in this league,” said ‘Nique. “How many people do you know gets 50 on back-to-back nights? For whatever reason, people get overlooked and I can’t explain it. I don’t know. But the funny thing is, his peers know. They know what Bernard King meant to this game. They know what he did to players in this game. People at the small forward position, guys did not want to play against Bernard King because they had to work too hard. He was relentless.”
He took the skills he learned on the playgrounds of Fort Greene, East New York, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Brownsville and other city hoods and gave it to the world’s best, inspiring the next generation of NYC stars to follow. He’s the King, baby!
THE PLAYGROUND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS THE SOLUTION!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
g says:
Gil Reynolds (RIP) greatest protege. Gil made BK a beast,work ethic,jump shot,play thru fouls and initiate contact,ball iq,being fearless (you’d have to be fearless if you played under Gil,otherwise he’d beat you up or hit you in the head with the basketball and tell you to go get your father!!! true story!!!)
BK’s other brothers werent slouches either (Gerald-Hofstra, Ron “Spalding”- Fort Greene legend and of course Al (who shouldve done stand up,one of the funniest dudes you’d ever meet)) and Mr. King the patriarch still takes his constitutionals around the neighborhood as well……
Couldnt tell you how many times I’d be sitting in Tillary as a shorty watching the King brothers along with Curt Sumpter,Jerry “Ice” Reynolds,Kenny Charles, “Big” George and other notables,back when Kenny Graham was a commissioner at Tillary (yes Kenny Graham of West 4th). One game in particular stands out for me….. Bk was just getting ready to go to Tennessee (the Bernie and Ernie (Grundfeld) show). Gil had him running suicides on the sidelines cause he was late to the game. Tillary park is walking distance to Fort Greene P’s,so Gil didnt want to hear nothing. didnt care if you were an all american or an all haitian for that matter,you late,you run! mind you,hes making BK run in front of the crowd,which was kind of large,filled with the Fort Greene constituents. Bk was TIGHT! so he took it out on the opposing squad. 65 points,post ups,dunks,20 foot bank shots,up and unders,drop steps,the whole arsenal was on display…..Gil pulled him at the begining of the fourth,game was pretty much decided at that point. Gil pulls him to the side,tells him Jesus doesnt come late and play on my team,and you aint Jesus! lol! thats where BK got that intensity from….
September 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
ali says:
yes G! yes! preach on my man. that’s what i’m talkin about. tillary was one of my spots too. that’s what young cats, like that dude dancing around dribbling in the youtube clip before falling on his face, need to know.
when we talk about the playground, we talkin about puttin in work outside, running suicides, learning backboard angles, drop steps, up and unders, perfecting the craft.
and i love the line “Jesus doesnt come late and play on my team,and you aint Jesus!” It’s gentlemen like Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Couch and countless anonymous others that have impacted the game more than the casual person would ever know.
the playground ain’t about dancing and tricks, it’s about blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice and work. to paraphrase frank sinatra, if you can do it (bust that a–!) there , you can do it anywhere.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Elliot Rosado says:
Ray Williams, Truck Robinson, Bill Cartwright, Louis Orr, Marvin Webster, Darrell Walker, Rory Sparrow, This was his supporting cast which should tell you how great Bernard King was. Larry Bird had McHale & Parrish. Doc had Moses & Andrew Toney. Yet they still knew they had a game in there hands when they played the Knicks.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
kenny Patt says:
Great article. I use to imagine that I was B. King on the baseline as a kid, and thats when most kids were Magic Johnson and big Laker fans in my hood. My other fave was Micheal Ray Richardson who were traded for each other in 82 if I remember correctly. I firt saw B. when he played at Golden State with World B. Free and Purvis Short way before cable came to the BX (Ch 9) once a year.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
ali says:
kenny,
channel 9 was all we had, unless we could grab some nosebleeds in the garden. we read the back of the daily news every day during basketball season and checked all the boxscores. wish cable and the season ticket was around to see more of Bernard. used to pretend i was b.k. during those solitary moments on the court too. whenever me and my homies played one-on-one, i always had to be bernard king. and sugar ray richardson? oh boy! take away the drugs and put him in the league right now in his prime. who gets the better of that dude? i’m struggling to find the answer.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
ali says:
hey eliot,
doc also had mo cheeks , big bird also had dj, both premiere point guards. imagine a healthy bernard playing with rod strickland and pat ewing! man, it’s hard being a knick fan.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Sean Couch says:
Ali,
Great job, believe it or not Al King during his time had higher acclaim then his brother Bernard. I had a chance to watch these guys up close during my childhood when my pops had open pro run at various gyms around the city. No one had
the automatic gun on the block on the turnaround like Bernard King. The shot is becoming a lost art if u think about it.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
illest says:
true indeed albert was better out of high school. but bernard became one of the most unbelievable scorers ever. its just amazing how good he was. that poster with the kings is crazy. i remember cornbread maxwell saying that b aint gettin 40 no more. and he did. that 83-84 knicks team played the celtics better than any team in the playoffs (even though the lakers choked that series).
micheal ray was one of my favorites…..he killed isiah, magic, used to give mike fits. its a shame what his career became. the stories of sugar have to different sneaker deals is crazy.
great job ali with this. bernard would score 40 plus a game today. and it shows how much a sham the HOF is with bernard king not in it. i know as knick fans we bleed orange and blue but the navy blue and burgundy the knicks rocked those few seasons was ill.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Dan the Man says:
You mean this Michael Ray ??????????!!!!!!
September 6th, 2008 at 11:13 am
illest says:
dan the man….of course that one!!!is there another one besides sugar? he was incredible.
September 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
ali!!! great minds think alike, man. i had a post scheduled to go live in two weeks about bernard, but you beat me to it! i’m moving it up to monday, will give more perspective on the King brothers. check it out, bro. as usual, we gotta make a book one day with your ‘playground gave us’ series! word up!
September 6th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
ali says:
kbl,
can’t wait to check the post on monday. anybody who watched ball in the ’80s knew B King was nice. but if you lived in ny, especially, there was something about his game that was near, dear and touched all of us.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:54 am
illest says:
definitely need to check that monday post.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Dan the Man says:
illest…..you know your bball!!
Ali…. keep it coming !!!
Check out King vs.Isiah.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:37 am
the stuy says:
Bernard King is the reason I’m a Knicks fan.. The 1st Knick game I went to BK dropped like 35.. That “Kings” poster really took me back..
September 8th, 2008 at 9:04 am
ali says:
i feel you stuy,
i was alive, though too young to really remember the clyde frazier, willis reed, earl monroe, bill bradley knick championship teams. the knicks were my favorite team but when BK came back home, he cemented what has become a tortuous love affair with my hometown crew. i can’t tell you what it felt like when he gave everybody the business, especially larry bird. and when dominique says that out of all the players, bernard scared him the most, that resonates because we felt that when we watched. we didn’t get that championship, but we were inspired.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
illest says:
one of his best moments was when he came back to the garden as a bullet and dropped 49. the knicks giving up on bernard after he worked hours and hours to get back from an injury that no one before him has to be an all pro is a disgrace. if anyone has seen msg the vault bernard king night its wonderful.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Dan the Man says:
Isiah vs. King in NBA Playoffs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pdecpTq_g&feature=related