Outside of Carmelo Anthony, Bernard King is really the last time that the Knicks had a young wing with as much promise as RJ Barrett (and King wasn’t even that young, as he was 26 by the time he joined the Knicks, but guys obviously entered the league later back in those days), so I guess it’s good to get them together.
From Marc Berman:
After Thursday’s practice, Barrett sat for several minutes with King, who has been invited for the second straight year to training camp. King, the Brooklyn-born scoring machine, will be with the club until Saturday.
“It’s obvious to me he wants to be an outstanding player,’’ said King, wearing a vintage Knicks jacket. “I shared with him, the key is hard work. I said ‘Hey, when I was an all-pro, I’d go in on Sunday. And nobody was in the gym but me. So I was constantly working on my game.’ ”
King also had the following to say about Barrett:
“I didn’t see the summer,’’ the 62-year-old King said. “Obviously I saw him play in college. One of the things I told him [was]: When I came into the league I couldn’t handle the ball and I excelled at that at one point. And I didn’t have a jump shot beyond 15 feet. I developed those aspects of my game. In any profession, you have to build your skill sets. He’s obviously a tremendous talent. He’s going to have a great career. He’ll continue to grow as any young player would.”
Nice to hear.