The selections for the Nets All-Time Top 25 Team were made by the author, with no input from the Brooklyn Nets organization. Selections were based on a combination of individual performance, team success and their contribution to it, and longevity with the franchise.
Brooklyn-born Bernard King brought one of basketball's great scoring touches from the borough blacktops to the gym at Fort Hamilton HS, the University of Tennessee and right into the NBA with the Nets.
Drafted seventh overall after averaging 25.8 points per game in three seasons with the Volunteers, the 21-year-old swingman lit up the scoreboard during the franchise's first season in New Jersey in 1977-78. King was actually the first player ever selected by the Nets in the NBA Draft. As a rookie he put up 24.2 points per game, still the eighth-best single-season mark in team history, behind only Rick Barry, Julius Erving and Vince Carter.
King also grabbed 9.5 rebounds per game and averaged 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals in earning a spot on the NBA's All-Rookie First Team.
The following year King averaged 21.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 52.2 percent from the field.
King's 798 field goals made in 1977-78 are fifth in team history behind just Erving and Barry, and his 710 in 1978-79 are eighth. Over his first two NBA seasons he averaged 22.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. His total Nets scoring average of 20.2 points per game is seventh in franchise history.
After being traded following the 1978-79 season, King went on to make four NBA All-Star Game appearances and win the scoring title with 32.9 points per game in 1984-85. He received All-NBA honors in 1981-82, 1983-84, 1984-85 and 1990-91.
King's NBA career came full circle. After missing the 1991-92 season with an injury, he returned to play 32 games for the Nets in 1992-93 before retiring. Twenty years later, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the only player drafted by the Nets to be so honored.