A Legacy In Full
Stacey King, who won three NBA championships as a player with the Chicago Bulls and then spent two decades as the team's television color commentator, has died at 59, the franchise announced Sunday.
Selected sixth overall in the 1989 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-11 Oklahoma native joined a Bulls team coming off an Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons. He appeared in all 82 games as a rookie and made the All-Rookie Second Team after averaging 8.9 points and 4.7 rebounds.
The trophy did not need much decoration; the season had already done most of the talking.
His most famous moment as a player came during his rookie season, when Michael Jordan dropped 69 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I'll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points," King joked at the time. It was a preview of the humor that would define his broadcasting career.
The Numbers That Last
King was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1994 during Jordan's first retirement, then spent time with the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks. After playing overseas in Turkey and Argentina, he coached the Rockford Lightning and Skyforce before joining the Bulls broadcast booth in 2006.
He began as a studio analyst and transitioned to color commentary, working alongside Johnny "Red" Kerr, Tom Dore, Neil Funk and Adam Amin. His approach was distinctly fan-forward: "Basically, in a nutshell, I kind of say things a fan would say on the couch watching the Bulls game," he told ESPN in 2011.
Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf called King "a cherished member of the Bulls family and one of the truly unique personalities in our organization's history," noting his connection to Chicago spanned three decades as both player and broadcaster.
The Game That Followed
King played college basketball at the University of Oklahoma from 1985 to 1989, helping the Sooners reach the 1988 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Kansas and Danny Manning. He was named Big 8 Player of the Year and a consensus First Team All-American in 1989, averaging 26 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game on 52.3% shooting as a senior.
He is survived by his family. No cause of death was given.