Posts for category ‘bernard king’

ESPN.com currently has this “Franchise Five” feature going on for all NBA teams. Basically, they have an interactive page where visitors can vote for the “best” player in franchise history at each position (PG, SG, SF, PF, C).

Here are the candidates:

Point Guard:
Gilbert Arenas, Rod Strickland, Archie Clark, Kevin Porter and Michael Adams

Shooting Guard:
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Jeff Malone, Phil Chenier, Kevin Loughery and Don Ohl

Small Forward:
Bernard King, Caron Butler, Bob Dandridge and Calbert Cheaney

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Here’s a vision of Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld on Christmas day 25 years ago. Notice his semi-festive tie? Then again, Grunfeld is Jewish, so it probably wasn’t that festive. Here, Grunfeld is a ripe 29 years old, in his third season with the New York Knicks, which was also his second to last in the NBA.

So what’s Grunfeld doing? He’s checking out Bernard King score a Christmas day 60 points, albeit in a 120-114 loss to the New Jersey Nets, while sitting on the bench in street clothes, out with an injury.

For more on King’s 60-point game, check out the article, ‘King gifted 60 points on Christmas day 25 years ago,’ by Steve Aschburner on NBA.com or a recent quick Howard Beck interview with King on the New York Times’ NBA blog, Off The Dribble.

I’ve also written historically about King and Grunfeld on this site before. One post was about the time I saw King score 44 points as a Washington Bullet against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. And another post was about when Grunfeld was on the court for Patrick Ewing’s debut as a Knick (which I did not see in person).

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, here’s some highlights of King’s 60.

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I was doing some cleaning around the apartment yesterday, working on a project for Father’s Day (Happy Father’s Day to my dad all the real dads out there) and came across a clipping from the Washington Times that my pops gave me just over three years ago.

“What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been,” was Tom Knott’s proclamation of purged bad karma for DC’s pro-basketball franchise just before game one against the Chicago Bulls in the ’05 NBA playoffs. It made me think, so much of that trip was spent bonding with my dad. We probably made the trek out to Landover, MD, and then downtown to Chinatown years later, at least 175 times together, witnessing years of futility and a lone playoff game pre-2005. To pass time with my father, to follow a hometown team together, it was all worth it.

I couldn’t help but get a chuckle out of Knott’s column. The long, strange trip continues and some would argue that Wizards fans still have not been exonerated of bad karma. Is this article to remind us how appreciative we should be for a four year playoff run, or have our expectations justifiably risen to the point where wanting more supersedes being spoiled by morsels of success?

The circus acts of yore are all featured: “Nervous” Pervis Ellison, Manute Bol, Boo-nard King (is that the best picture they had?), Mel Turpin, Rex Chapman (one of my all time favorites), Rod Strickland, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jerry Stackhouse, and finally Old Man Jordan.

Knott, in his typical pessimistic fashion (I’d be a hippocrite to blame him) recounts dysfunctional tales; head scratching gaffes from yesteryear which have become sources of present day comedy. The lead story of Pervis Ellison getting into an auto accident because of a DWIWGCF (driving while incapacitated with greasy chicken fingers) seems like the perfect jump-off point.

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