Albert King

[weezie]

And, as to the front page clip here of Marvin singing the national anthem: anybody who can't get on board with K and Marvin should simply hang their heads and slink off into the shadows and darkness!

[gw67]

It was enjoyable reading the SI articles on Albert King linked by DBR. He was hyped as a superstar from an early age and by the time he was a senior, Magic and Gene Banks were considered the three best prospects in the country. Albert had a very nice career at Maryland and was ACC POY during his junior year. However, unlike Magic neither he nor Banks were great players, IMO. I recall a close friend of mine concluding that Albert had more of a suburban game (great jump shooter who was so-so putting the ball on the floor) compared to his brother at Tennessee, Bernard, who had great moves around the basket and a remarkable ability to get off a shot when closely guarded.

gw67

[Olympic Fan]

Nice summary, gw67 ...

I too remember the spring of 1977, when King, Banks and Johnson were the three premier prospects in the country. If anything, King from New York City (and the younger brother of the Tennessee star) and Banks from Philly (the best prospect from that city since Wilt) got a little more pub than Magic.

As I remember, King's strength was a one-dribble, pop-up jumper from mid-range. He was so quick going from the dribble to the jumper -- and it was deadly.

But I remember one miss very clearly .. the final seconds of the 1980 ACC title game. Duke is up one when King takes his quick dribble to the foul line, pops up and sends a 15-footer for the win. The shot rolls off, Kenny Dennard wipes out Buck Williams underneath and -- boom! -- Duke is ACC champion.

The interesting thing is that King not only won player of the year in 1980, he was also given the Case Award as the tourney MVP (even though Duke won the tourney).

Okay, one more interesting thing ... King won ACC POY as a junior, then failed to win it as a senior. That has not happened often, but it did a lot in that era -- starting with John Roche (he won in 69 and 70, but lost to Charlie Davis in 71), Barry Parkhill (he won in 72, but lost to David Thompson in 73), Mike Gminski (he won in 79, but lost to King in 80).

That's four times in 11 seasons between 1971 and 1981. Other than that stretch, I can only find one other time a POY returned and didn't repeat -- Julius Hodge (won in 2004 and lost to JJ Redick in 2005).

Maybe Hansbrough can join the list!

[NDMD]

But I remember one miss very clearly .. the final seconds of the 1980 ACC title game. Duke is up one when King takes his quick dribble to the foul line, pops up and sends a 15-footer for the win. The shot rolls off, Kenny Dennard wipes out Buck Williams underneath and -- boom! -- Duke is ACC champion.




Taking you at your literal best, Olympic. This is quite true. Dennard did, in fact, wipe out Buck Williams.


As to your second point, it's very interesting to note that three of the four players who did not repeat as POY in their senior year played outside of the state of North Carolina.

Mere conincidence, I suppose..........