Kirk King (born December 24, 1975) is a retired

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

player. He played for the

Connecticut Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, with its main campus located in Storrs, Connecticut. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big Eas ...

from 1993 to 1997 before being suspended during his senior season for violating

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) rules. In 1997, he was drafted into the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

(CBA), the now-defunct developmental league of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). While never reaching the NBA, King played professionally for several years in the CBA, the

United States Basketball League The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...

, the

International Basketball League The International Basketball League (IBL) was a semi-professional men's basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States. In 2010 the Albany Legends became the first team in the Northeastern United States to join. The ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Early life and amateur career

Born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, King attended Southern Lab High School. He led the school's basketball team to two state championships during his junior and senior seasons. He played for the

People to People Student Ambassador Program The People to People Student Ambassador Program was a travel service based in Spokane, Washington, offering domestic and international travel opportunities to middle and high school students. The group was founded in 1956, during the Eisenhower ...

basketball team which traveled to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

in 1994, Italy in 1995 and Spain in 1996. King opted to attend the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

instead of a Louisiana university following a visit to

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and a tour of the campus. After averaging 2.9

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player or team per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of poi ...

in his first two seasons as a reserve player with the

, King was given the starting

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...

spot going into his junior season (1995–96). On January 10, 1996, King set a career high in points with 20 on 10-of-10 shooting from the

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

, tying a

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

record for number of field goals made in a game without a miss. In January 1996, King made 22 straight field goals, three shy on the

(NCAA) record of 25-for-25. Going into the 1996–97 season, King was the only player on UConn's roster that had experience as a starter and was named the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. In January 1997, the NCAA announced that King and UConn sophomore Ricky Moore had been suspended for accepting free

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

tickets from

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

John Lounsbury to fly back to Connecticut in October 1995. King's suspension was for the remainder of his senior season. The NCAA gave King a longer suspension than Moore because according to their investigation King knew he was violating NCAA rules. UConn was later stripped of their wins during their

1996 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1996 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 14, 1996, and ended with the champio ...

run and ordered them to pay back $90,970 in money the school made during the postseason. The team made King an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

assistant coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

following his suspension, allowing him to attend practices, travel with the team and sit on their bench during games. Huskies head coach

Jim Calhoun James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is an American former college basketball coach. He is best known for his tenure as head coach of the University of Connecticut (UConn) men's basketball team. His teams won three NCAA national championships ( ...

told the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...

'', "Kirk King made a mistake; nothing more, nothing less. I think he should be able to play, but I don't run the NCAA. What Kirk said to us was more than compelling to me. Apparently, it wasn't for other people. I can't control that." King graduated from Connecticut with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

Professional career

Following his graduation in 1997, King was drafted in the fifth round (46 overall) by the

Connecticut Pride The Connecticut Pride (from 1993 to 1994 the Hartford Hellcats) were an American professional basketball team based in Hartford, Connecticut, that was a member of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). They played in Hartford from 1993 to ...

in the

(CBA). During his rookie season in the CBA, King averaged 10.9 points per game and 4.5 rebounds. He was named the CBA's American Conference Player of the Week on January 3, 1998. King had brief stints playing for the

Connecticut Skyhawks The Connecticut Skyhawks were a men's spring-professional basketball team in the United States Basketball League The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ...

in the

(USBL) in 1997 and 1998. King played for the

Guaiqueríes de Margarita Guaiqueríes de Margarita is a professional basketball team based in La Asunción, Venezuela. The team currently plays in Venezuela's Liga Profesional de Baloncesto. The team has won the Venezuelan championships nine times. Current roster LPB t ...

of the

Liga Profesional de Baloncesto The Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto, commonly known as the SPB, is the Venezuelan first division national professional basketball league. Founded in 1974 as the Liga Especial de Baloncesto, it adopted the name Liga Profesional de Baloncesto i ...

in 1998. During the off-season before the 1998–99 season, King worked out with the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

of the

(NBA), but was cut from the team before the preseason. King signed with the

La Crosse Bobcats The La Crosse Bobcats were a Continental Basketball Association (CBA) basketball team located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from 1996 to the league's bankruptcy in February 2001. The Bobcats were the second CBA team located in La Crosse; previously, th ...

of the CBA in 1998, but was later traded to the

Rockford Lightning The Rockford Lightning was a basketball team that played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). They were based in Rockford, Illinois. History The Lightning were the oldest team in the CBA, originally existing as the Lancaster Red R ...

. In 1999, King played briefly with a professional team based in

Aibonito, Puerto Rico Aibonito () is a small mountain town and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the Sierra de Cayey mountain range, north of Salinas; south of Barranquitas and Comerío; east of Coamo; and west of Cidra, and Cayey. Aibonito is spread over ...

. Going into the 1999–2000 season, King signed with the Trenton Shooting Stars of the

(IBL). King signed with the

San Diego Stingrays The San Diego Stingrays were a basketball team based in San Diego, California, that competed as a charter member of International Basketball League (IBL). The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena. It was owned by online sports g ...

of the IBL in January 2000. In the summer of 2000, King played professional basketball in the

. King re-joined the Connecticut Pride in the CBA before the league ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in February 2001. He was named to the CBA All-Star game during the 2000–01 season. He also played with the Baltimore Bayrunners in the IBL during the 2000–01 season. Following the IBL season, King signed with the

Toros de Aragua Toros de Aragua is a Venezuelan professional basketball club based in Aragua. The club competes in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto The Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto, commonly known as the SPB, is the Venezuelan first division national p ...

of the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto in Venezuela. Later that year, King joined the

Piratas de Quebradillas ''Piratas'' () is a Spanish adventure drama television series with comedy elements created by Carlos Portela and which stars Óscar Jaenada, Pilar Rubio and Silvia Abascal. It aired on Telecinco in 2011. Premise Set in the 18th century, the fi ...

in the

Baloncesto Superior Nacional The Baloncesto Superior Nacional, abbreviated as BSN, is the first-tier-level professional men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1929 and is organized by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation. T ...

, Puerto Rico's top-tier men's professional basketball league. In 2001, King signed with A.O.

Near East B.C. A.O. Near East B.C. is one of the oldest professional basketball clubs in Greece. The basketball club was founded in 1927. The team is located in Kaisariani, which is a suburb of the city of Athens. Near East's home arena, Near East Indoor Arena, ...

in the

Greek Basket League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

. During the 2001–02 season, King averaged 14.2

and 10

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

in 26 games played. He led the

in total rebounds (259). King last played for

Gaiteros del Zulia Gaiteros del Zulia is a professional basketball team based in Maracaibo, Venezuela. The team plays in Venezuela's Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto. They have won the Venezuelan championships four times. Trophies *Liga Profesional de Baloncesto ...

in the Venezuelan Liga Profesional de Baloncesto in 2005 before a knee injury forced him to retire.

References

External links

*Stats available a
Sports-Reference College Basketball
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LatinBasket
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Kirk 1975 births Living people Alaska Aces (PBA) players American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines American expatriate basketball people in Venezuela American men's basketball players Baloncesto Superior Nacional players Baltimore Bayrunners players Basketball players from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Connecticut Pride players Gaiteros del Zulia players Guaiqueríes de Margarita players La Crosse Bobcats players Near East B.C. players Philippine Basketball Association imports Piratas de Quebradillas players Rockford Lightning players San Diego Stingrays players Sta. Lucia Realtors players Trenton Shooting Stars players UConn Huskies men's basketball players Small forwards Toros de Aragua players 20th-century American sportsmen