NBA Draft: Each team’s greatest draft pick of all-time

Greatest draft pick in Brooklyn Nets history: Bernard King

Over the course of a career that spanned 14 seasons across multiple cities, Bernard King amassed a grand total of 19,655 points, good for 46th best in NBA history and right behind pass-first point guard John Stockton. Don’t get it twisted, though, because, at his absolute best, there were maybe a handful of players who could score the basketball as well as King.

Upon receiving the ball in the mid-post area, there was little to nothing any defender could do to slow him down. At times, it seemed as though his jump-shot was automatic even with the opposition draped all over him, and it was the threat of the pull-up jumper that gave him the room to blow past guys if the opportunity ever presented itself.

King was selected seventh overall by the team formerly known as the New Jersey Nets in 1977 and wound up playing only two seasons for the team before being traded to the Utah Jazz in October of 1979. He would then find his way to three other organizations only to land back in Jersey for what would be his final campaign during the 1992-93 season.

In those first two seasons, though, he showed out in ways not many youngsters do, averaging 22.9 points on 50.1 percent shooting to go along with 8.9 rebounds per game. He was as electric a scoring threat as there was, and if not for a few major injuries over the course of his career, there’s no telling how revered he’d be among NBA circles in the present day.