In a shocking story over the weekend, the news came out about the passing of Chicago Bulls broadcaster Stacey King. It shows you life can be way too short. According to ESPN’s Davod Kaplan, it was a fall that punched the ticket of King at the age of 59, which is totally unfair. King not only gave you insight into Bulls games from 2006 until present times. He was drafted by the Bulls and helped Chicago win three titles. King was a part of the first three-peat championship teams that featured Michael Jordan, Horace Grant, and Scottie Pippen. As a broadcaster, his broadcasts dialed you in like if he was calling the game on your couch drinking a few beers. The words “hot sauce” are what he used to describe an incredible three point shot. He used plenty of humor and still gave you the X’s and O’s of the game itself. Stacey King has been a part of the Bulls organization for 25 seasons. Five as a player and 20 calling the games on television.
The Chicago Bulls drafted Stacey King in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft, 6th overall. He played 8 seasons in the NBA and 5 of them were with the Bulls from 1989 until 1994. He also suited up for the Heat, Celtics, Timberwolves, and his last team he played for in the NBA was the Mavericks in 1996-97. King played for two teams in his 8th season in the NBA. He played 5 games with the Celtics & then 6 with Dallas. In the NBA he played in 438 regular season games. He averaged 6.4 points per game, 3.3 rebounds per game, and 0.9 assists per game in the regular season. He played another 61 games in post season where he averaged 5.0 point per game, 2.2 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. In his NBA career, King played some center and power forward. In college King was a true scorer at Oklahoma. If King played for a bottom feeder team in the NBA, he may have been that elite scorer he was during his college career. He always expressed he loved winning more and the Bulls were going deep in the post-season at the time only to be eliminated by the Detroit Pistons. After his NBA career was over, he still had the itch to play longer. King went overseas and played for 2 countries: Turkey and Argentina. He also played for Sioux Falls in the CBA which was at the time the Continental Basketball League. King after that went into coaching with two CBA teams: Rockford Lightning and Sioux Falls Skyforce. King would play professional basketball for over 10 years.
In 2006 Stacey King joined the Bulls broadcast. After 1 year he was promoted to lead color commentator on the Bulls television broadcasts. It did not take Stacey very long to win over all of Bulls nation with his game analysis. His signature nicknames for players like the Windy City Assassin for point guard and Chicago guy, Derek Rose. For Jimmy Butler it was Jimmy G Buckets. The G would stand for Gets. He always had some great one-liners over the years such as, “Where’s my poster machine?” He’d be referring to an amazing play on the court by a Bulls player. Then he would say, “Drive home safely, Chicago! Beep, beep!” That would be his sign off phrase to end the telecasts. “Give Me the hot sauce,” started with Kyle Korver’s three pointers when he would get red hot and rain down three’s all night long. For an explosive dunk he’d go with, “Asik and destroy.” For any Bulls player like Butler or Rose going strong for a shot through the middle of traffic and making it. He would say “Too big! Too strong! Too fast! Too Good!” The hot sauce saying led to a podcast for Stacey.
When he was a player, he had clever sayings to reporters. His best comment came when he said, “Jordan and I combined to score 70 points tonight.” Referring to one of Michael Jordan’s famous games where he scored 69 points. It was true they did combine for 70 points because Stacey had 1 point that game. On the court he helped win championships doing whatever he was asked to do. He obviously did the dirty work because he was not scoring a ton of points every night. He became a better announcer with his personality than playing the game. After the Jordan years, Bulls basketball has been nothing special. Yes, the Derek Rose years were solid until his serious knee injury changed that team. Throw in a few other teams that did well & made post-season only to be eliminated in the first round. Stacey had those teams with plenty of bad years mixed in between the teams that had a good year. No matter what, he kept you entertained. Since I started watching sports in the 4 main teams of the Chicago sports landscape, we have had some great announcers. More homers than trying to call both sides of the coin. In baseball we had the great Ken the Hawk Harrelson, Steve Stone, and Harry Carry. Harry and the Hawk had the slogans, the play calls, & the one liners like Stacey has. Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk for the Blackhawks along with Troy Murray were amazing at painting the picture. One of the best Bulls announcers was Johnny Kerr who called the games Stacey played in. Then the Bears’ Jeff Joniak calling, “TOUCHDOWN BEARS,” just dances inside your head like sugar plums do the night before Christmas. I’m sure I have forgotten some great announcers for all these teams in Chicago. I’m sure before I was born all these teams had some great personalities. Either on the radio air waves or the voice on your television set. For Stacey King he will go down as one of the best all-time on Chicago television at calling the game the right way. He sounded like one of those guys that sit next you on the bar stool in your favorite watering hole. Great laughs & great insight. He seemed like a great dude as a human being. Good, bad, or ugly you never leave not entertained. He will be very hard to replaced. He will be missed. He will never be forgotten. It sucks that a freak accident can do that to whoever. I give my condolences to the King family. Thanks for the great memories on the court and on my television set. RIP STACEY!!! We loved you, man!!
The Wild shamrock 