The Result Has A Second Meaning
Stacey King, who won three championships with the Chicago Bulls and later spent two decades as the team's television color commentator, has died at age 59, the franchise announced Sunday.
King joined the Bulls in 1989 as the No. 6 overall pick out of Oklahoma, arriving the same year Michael Jordan began his rise toward greatness. He appeared in all 82 games as a rookie, averaging 8.9 points and 4.7 rebounds off the bench, and made the 1990 All-Rookie Second Team.
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 Jordan dropped 69 points against Cleveland. "I'll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points," King joked afterward. That instinct for finding the humor in any situation would define his later broadcasting career.
The Bulls traded King to Minnesota in 1994, during Jordan's first retirement, in exchange for Luc Longley. He logged time with the Timberwolves, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks before playing overseas in Turkey and Argentina.
The Part Worth Keeping
King transitioned to broadcasting in 2006, starting as a studio analyst before moving to the color commentary chair. His easy humor and genuine enthusiasm made him a Chicago favorite — the kind of voice that felt like a friend watching the game with you.
"Basically, in a nutshell, I kind of say things a fan would say on the couch watching the Bulls game," King told ESPN in 2011. "There's a lot of energy, a lot of fun and some spontaneity trying to capture the moment."
Owner Jerry Reinsdorf called King "one of the truly unique personalities in our organization's history" — a sentiment that captures why his passing leaves a specific kind of void in Chicago sports. He was 59.