“I’ll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score seventy points,” Stacey King, March 28, 1990
King was an All-American basketball player at the University of Oklahoma before playing nine seasons in the NBA. He was no stranger to scoring in college, as the 6’11” power forward and center is still fifth on the list in Oklahoma school history in scoring, and he was drafted as the sixth overall selection by Chicago Bulls, where he was a member of the Bulls team which won three consecutive NBA championships between the years 1991 to 1993.
And on that March night in 1990, Jordan scored 69 points to set a Bulls’ record that still stands.
King scored one.
A single point.
He didn’t care. He was the consummate team player, willing to play in whatever role helped his Sooners or the Bulls to achieve their goals.
I met King, now a broadcaster for the Bulls, prior to a game a couple of years ago.
“I use you in my talks to companies and teams,” I volunteered.
He looked at me askance.
“The ‘combined for seventy points,’ story” I said.
He laughed, and as we talked, I asked him if he’d ever gotten pressure to score more.
“Sure. At times my agent or family or friends would say I needed to score more, but I knew that it was best for the Bulls and my career if I played that role. Play defense, get rebounds, and get the ball back to Michael and Scottie (Pippen).”
Sure enough, he played in over four hundred NBA games and averaged under seven points a game.
He knew his role. And embraced it.
How about us? How about our companies? Are people embracing their roles? Are we?
Our teams will be better for it.
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