Stacey King Delivers Wit, Wisdom to Youths at Bulls-Sox Training Academy

Those of us who watch Chicago Bulls television broadcasts know Stacey King, the Bulls’ color man, calls for hot sauce whenever Kyle Korver or another Bulls shooter gets hot and starts sinking a few three-pointers.

“Get me the hot sauce, Kyle!” King exclaims.

To the best of my knowledge, viewers have never heard King go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs during Bulls games. But when King was a kid growing up in his native Oklahoma, he revealed to a number of youngsters attending a recent basketball camp at the Lisle-based Bulls-Sox Training Academy that he developed quite a taste for the chocolate-covered puffed grain breakfast cereal made by General Mills.

King, who stands 6-foot-10, claims eating Cocoa Puffs was his secret to getting tall.

The kids who sat on the floor of the facility’s main basketball court started laughing as King waxed nostalgic about Cocoa Puffs.

So did the adults in the room.

Funny. I recall gobbling down countless bowls of Cocoa Puffs during my formative years, but I topped out at 5-9. And my basketball career, for what it’s worth, topped out in junior high.

King’s hoops career, though, kept growing, along with his pants length and shoe size (he wears a size 17).

Prior to becoming one of the NBA’s most colorful color commentators, King was an outstanding player—an all-stater in high school, and an all-American at the University of Oklahoma, where he averaged 26 points and 10 boards per game his senior year.

The Bulls made King their No. 1 draft choice (sixth overall) in the 1989 NBA draft. But once King arrived in Chicago, then GM Jerry Krause broke the news to him that his scoring touch wouldn’t be needed at Chicago Stadium. (Keep in mind that the United Center hadn’t been built yet.)

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen did most of the scoring for the Bulls. King’s new role, Krause told him, would be to rebound and block shots.

Initially, King admitted he didn’t like his new role, as described by Krause. But he ended up embracing it for the good of the team, which went on to win three consecutive NBA titles from 1991-1993. (His Bulls career ended when he was traded to Minnesota during the 1993-94 season.)

That’s a point King emphasized to camp participants: Leave your own agenda and personal goals at the door in order to benefit your team.

“It was the greatest experience of my life,” he said. “Not only with Michael Jordan, but with Scottie Pippen, Bill Cartwright, John Paxson, B.J. Armstrong, Horace Grant, I could go down the list. The bottom line: it’s about winning. Everybody has to be on the same page. Everybody has to be going for the same goal. If I have a 12-man team and eight of us are going for the same goal, and the four other dudes don’t care, we’ll never win.

“You want to win something? You want to be part of something special? Then you’ve got to make the commitment as an individual to be on part of a team, and you’ve got to sacrifice something.”

Earlier this summer, Pippen, King’s teammate, became the centerpiece of some controversy when he suggested LeBron James may be the greatest player of all time, while M.J. was the greatest scorer in the game.

One boy at camp asked King point-blank who he thinks is the greatest player ever—LeBron or Michael. King responded by giving that youngster and his colleagues at camp a homework assignment: Rent the video, “Come Fly with Me,” a documentary on Jordan.

“It will remove all doubt on who the greatest player is,” King said. “You’ve all seen LeBron play, and I can’t fault you for that because you guys live in the now generation. You only see what you see now. Go get that video. I guarantee your approach will be totally different.

“Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. Hands down. I played with the man. I’ve seen the man drop 69 points with a bad ankle. I’ve seen him score 30 points in two quarters. I’ve seen him come in and get six championship rings. I’ve seen him play sick. I didn’t see Michael Jordan ever make excuses.”

Hot sauce and Cocoa Puffs might be on Stacey King’s menu, but one item he doesn’t like is “hate-orade” (not to be confused with Gatorade). King says hate-orade is the choice beverage (fictitious, of course) ordered by naysayers who tell you that you can’t achieve a goal or develop your talents.

“Work hard,” he said. “Don’t let anybody out-work you. Don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something. Because there’s going to be a lot of haters out there drinking hate-orade. There’s always going to be someone negative telling you you can’t do something. Man, brush them off.”

The effervescent King is never at a loss for words no matter what the topic. After addressing kids at the Training Academy, he touched on the following:

On why he’s so popular with Bulls fans of all ages: “I’m just an approachable guy. I was that way as a player—jovial, I could really lighten up a room when I came into the room. Fans kind of really remember that, some of the older fans, and some of the new kids, the new generation, they look at me as being hip. I know the music of today, and (they like) some of the phrases I use.”

On the current NBA lockout: “To be honest with you, I’m not going to worry about it (the lockout) until October. Unfortunately I’m not in the day-to-day operations on that. I’m just basically media, so hopefully they’ll find a way to work it out as football did and we can get the season started on time.”

On the Bulls’ run to the NBA Eastern Conference finals last season: “It was a great season for them. They exceeded all expectations. I don’t think anyone other than people in the organization thought that this team could get to the Eastern Conference finals. Everybody was hating on them all year long. Derrick Rose isn’t the MVP … yadda, yadda, yadda. I listened to that all year long. Honestly, maybe they were a couple of plays away from beating Miami. I realistically think this team is a championship caliber team.”

On what the Bulls need to do when the lockout ends to make it to the NBA finals: “Are there some areas that they need to improve in? Yes, and they’re going to address those issues once this lockout ends. But the overall nucleus of this team is awesome. Great kids, great coach; they’re going in the right direction. They’re eventually going to be an NBA champion. This team’s going to win an NBA championship in the next three years.”