BIOGRAPHY

NBA Hall of Famer Bernard King first fell in love with the game of basketball on the playgrounds around his Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he grew up. He enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1974, majoring in communications, and joined that institution’s Division I basketball team. Bernard scored 42 points in his first game at 17 years old. Bernard was a three-time SEC Player of the Year, leading the conference in scoring and rebounding, and was a three-time All-American selection. He left the university in 1977 to embark on a stellar 15-year career in the NBA.

Highlights of his professional basketball career. Including playing for his hometown team, the New York Knicks; the All-Rookie team 1977-78, scoring Back-to-Back 50-point games (the first player to do so since 1964); Four-time All-Star, Two-Time First-Team All-Pro. Scored 60 points during a nationally televised Christmas Day game; NBA Scoring Champ averaged 32.9 points per game in 1984-85. Voted NBA MVP by the NBA players. In the 1983-84 playoffs, he set an NBA record for most points scored in a five-game playoff series, averaging 42.5 points per game against the Detroit Pistons. After that season, he received The Camel Trophy recognizing him as the NBA MVP.

In 1985 King suffered what then was considered a career-ending injury when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), torn cartilage, and broke a bone in a late-season game against the Kansas City Kings. Two of the nation’s top three Orthopedic surgeons told him he would never play again. A third held out hope with the offer of primarily experimental surgery. He opted for the operation and, after spending two years in rehabilitation five hours a day six, days a week. To the sports world’s amazement, Bernard returned; he became the first player to successfully ever return to the game from a torn ACL. To the further astonishment of the basketball world, he reclaimed his place in basketball’s elite circle as an NBA All-Star and All-Pro went on to play for another six seasons. In 1991, at the age of 34, he became the oldest player ever to start in an NBA All-Star Game.

After retiring from the NBA, King worked as a Broadcaster for various television outlets and co-hosted a radio show on WFAN in New York City. Bernard won two Emmys for his broadcasting work and shared three other Emmys. He has appeared on television shows like General Hospital and Miami Vice and had a starring role in the motion picture Fast Break. He appeared on talk shows, David Letterman, Today Show, and many others.

Bernard King served as a principal in King and Thompson Energy. A successful energy management business launched in 2006, he was responsible for contract negotiations, lead generation, partnerships, and senior-level press and marketing relationships.

For two years, Bernard served as a consultant to a Fortune 500 company, the Ratner Group. His responsibilities included presenting before the city council, wall street bankers, union officials, clergy representatives, and spearheading media alliances.

Bernard and his wife Shana owned and operated a successful Human Hair supply company for ten years with sales on the internet, retail, wholesale with customers worldwide and domestically.

He served on the board of directors for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. He was instrumental in bringing August Wilson’s Tony Award-nominated play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone to Broadway.

Bernard has worked with numerous charitable organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club, the National Cancer Society, United Way, and Goldwater Hospital for paraplegics and quadriplegics.

He has spoken on Capitol Hill for the NBA Stay-in-School program and world hunger-relief efforts. He also appeared with President George Bush, Sr., at the White House for National Fitness Day.

King received a proclamation from the City of New York recognizing his community service, also naming a day in his honor. In 2010 Bernard was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate from Long Island University.

Bernard King has an endowment fund at the University of Tennessee, assisting disadvantaged youth seeking higher education.

In 2013, Bernard King was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to recognize his outstanding career in basketball.

2016-18 appeared on Capitol Hill on behalf of the Basketball Hall of Fame Coin initiative.
2018 Speaker at the Green Sports Alliance Summit Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Bernard is married to his wife of Twenty- Five- Years Shana King, and together, they have a 23-year-old daughter Amina, a Spelman College Grad.