Bernard King is one of the best small forwards and scorers of all time. Once he played 60 points in the Madison Squard Garden, who has rarely seen such a legendary performance. Why is King so often overlooked when it comes to the real greats of basketball? His career tells a story of many setbacks. On the 4th. December he celebrates his 61st birthday. Birthday.
Christmas Day in the NBA, that’s a different dimension than the regular season. In the middle of the hard phase of the 82-game season, the games on the holidays stand out. Year after year the most explosive duels are played here, the ratings of all other matches are surpassed and the statistics for the 25th of December only. led.
Christmas Day at the NBA, this is a trip to playoffs in the middle of December. Games in which the big players want to make a statement and show who currently dominates the NBA. The most impressive performance on the 1. Christmas Day, however, was delivered by a player who rarely appears in the discussion about the best of all time – Bernard King.
60 points, 19 out of 30 from the field and 22 out of 26 from the free-throw line are still the most points ever scored on Christmas Day. The Knicks lost 120:114 to New Jersey’s city rival, but King made it clear to the NBA that he was likely to be there at the time.
“I have never played against a player who was so difficult to defend” – Julius Erving
“Bernard King is the best forward in the league, no discussion” – Larry Bird
“At Bernard’s, we can’t be surprised any more” – Isaiah Thomas
Even though Bernard King was voted best player of the 83/84 season not by the league, but only in a vote among the players, the words of these NBA legends show to what extent King was feared at that time.
He was considered by his peer group this season to be the best player in a league that included Isaiah, Larry Legend, MJ, Magic and Kareem.
King didn’t slow down and was top scorer in the 84/85 season with 32.9 points. He was about to write his own legend in the world’s most famous arena. The fans wanted to see the next Powerhouse in the east next to Detroit and Boston, which had already had enormous problems with the Knicks the year before.
In the Big Apple, hardly any other player is loved as much as Bernard King. But why?
Growing up in social housing in Brooklyn, New York, King lived through the classic hard life of a young black teenager in the 60s and 70s. Like many others, basketball served as a refuge and opportunity to make a name for oneself. King grew up as a Knicks fan and dreamed of standing on the floor in the Garden like his idols Walt Frazier and Willis Reed.
He knew nothing but basketball, became a high school legend in the Big Apple and carried the spectators away with his classic New York style of playing. The 2.07 metre tall Small Forward flew over the Hardwood with impressive athletics, scoring, coughing and bringing along that certain something from New York’s streetball scene.
King made a name for himself at the University of Tennessee through his achievements in high school. A Southern university that was better known for its football program, with only three percent of them enrolled in colored students at that time. Not exactly the dream of an ambitious black player from New York.
But one person was enough to convince King of Tennessee: Ernie Grundfeld. Grunfeld also had his roots in the Big Apple and showed this on the basketball court. It made “klick” and the two formed one of the most famous college duo of all time.
With their fancy playing style, the two of them made basketball popular in Tennessee. The games in Nashville were no longer sold as sports, but as entertainment events.
“I simply believe that we had a certain flair and arrogance that we didn’t know in the South,”said Grunfeld, who is now General Manager of the Washington Wizards. The “Bernie and Ernie Show” made Grunfeld the city’s most popular child. The Romanian-born was able to read the wishes from his lips…. and King?
On the floor Bernard King was celebrated just as much as his congenial white partner. Away from the square, however, he encountered the acute racism of the southern states every day. Arbitrary arrests and the constant feeling of being foreign led King to alcohol. In relation to ESPN, he briefly but surely summed up:”I have drunk a QUANTITY”.
A problem he could not get a handle on with the beginning of his NBA career, which he started as the seventh picker at the New Jersey Nets in 1977. Again and again King had excesses of alcohol and was traded from New Jersey, to Utah, to Golden State and finally to New York.
The alcohol aroused the monster in King, who was often beaten by his mother even in his childhood. After some incidents of drunk driving, addiction culminated in charges of sexual assault, which he himself could not remember because of too much drug abuse.
King wasn’t convicted, but his career was in the balance. There was probably only one place left to save him – the Madison Square Garden.
King came back to his hometown with all his problems in 1982 and managed the turnaround because he knew it was his last chance. King perfected his game and became an inside/out weapon with the Knicks.
His athleticism made him the perfect scorer in fastbreak and offensive rebound. His baseline jumper could not be defended because of a strong body stability and a good touch. His fearlessness brought him to the line again and again. From 1977 to 1991 there were only two seasons in which King remained below 20 points on average.
“I’ve never been afraid to play against anyone – Bird, Magic, Dr. J, Michael – I have a lot of respect for these players, but Bernard King is the only one I was really afraid of,”said Dominque Wilkins in his laudatory speech for King’s admission to the Hall of Fame.
“Like someone let off a shot.” That’s how Hubie Brown, then Knicks coach, described the noise that Kings’ knee made before he warped painfully on the ground.
Three months after he broke out at Christmas for 60 points, King completely destroyed his knee. Cruciate ligament rupture, cartilage damage and broken leg – the career end of what was probably the best player at the time. And the dream of the next powerhouse in the east was over.
King worked his way through the rehab under exclusion of the public and all of New York wondered what was going on with the franchise player. Two years later he returned, but was promptly traded to Washington in 1987.
He continued to post strong figures and at 34 years of age, he even achieved an average of 28.4 points. But he couldn’t achieve the significance he had for the New York fans in Washington. A knee injury later on, the career end was practically sealed.
The Guard loved him and his 60 points were treated like a sanctuary. For many years, most of the Madison Square Garden’s successes have been achieved, and it was not until 2009 that Kobe Bryant “spotted” the Shrine, taking 61 points against weak bends.
The Die-Hard fans of the Knickerbockers were so disappointed by their team that they whistled out their own boys. Also. that King was no longer on the list of top scorers in the MSG, gnawed at them. Even Carmelo Anthony’s 62 points a few years later could not hide the frustration of the fans in the Big Apple.
Bill Simmons described some of the reactions of the fans in his basketball almanac The Book of Basketball:”It was the worst night of my life in the Garden,”said a season ticket owner. Another reported to Simmons about sleepless nights that haunted him after Kobe’s performance. All this underlines the importance of King’s 60th birthday. It was and is the emblem of one of the greatest curtsies.
The Guard loved his star, which far too many people don’t seem to remember. With all that Bernard King has given the city in the spotlight, one must not forget that his change was only made possible by his return to Madison Square Garden.
“I played in the arena where my heroes played. On the way there I had tachycardia before every game. Every time I put the jersey on, it was special. In Madison Square Garden, every game is a Christmas game:”