Chuck Swirsky shares his Stacey King memories

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Rahimi & Grote Show 15 min 4 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 3 months ago
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What memories does Chuck Swirsky have of Stacey King?

Leila Rahimi 0:00
rahimi harrison grody we are finally here we are family middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 the score joined by of course a bulls legend and stacy king and so i'm on the plane yesterday and i'm thinking okay stacy king doug collins and then stacy informed me that he never played for doug collins who's headed to the hall of fame we're all delighted about that stacy tell me about that scenario
Stacey King 0:26
It was, you know, Doug drafted me the night of the draft on TNT. He called me personally, and he's like, hey, we're excited to have you. I'm looking forward to coaching you, and we'll see you Monday on the press conference. Got here on Monday. He wasn't here. It was just Jerry Krause and some other people. And I remember asking Jerry, you know, where's Doug at? You know, he said he was scouting. And so I didn't know anything about the NBA, so I assumed, yeah, he's scouting. I got back home that afternoon on a flight back to Oklahoma. I get a phone call probably around 7 o'clock at night from Phil Jackson. letting me know that Doug has been relieved of his job of coaching. He'll be the next Bulls coach.
Stacey King 1:05
And he wanted to let me know before it got out into the press. So I was wondering, me and BJ were probably the first people that knew about it.
Chuck Swirsky 1:13
That is a halftime interview from our Bulls broadcast here on 104.3 The Score. And the man who performed the interview alongside Stacey King is with us now in studio, Chuck Swirsky. Bulls Radio play-by-play announcer. He is at CTS Bulls on X and kind enough to join us in studio on what has been a very hard day and a very hard couple days for so many of us. Chuck, thanks for coming in.
Leila Rahimi 1:37
No, my pleasure. I wish we were doing this under different circumstances, but we're here to really celebrate and tell some stories about Stacey because we have a lot of them and they're all good. It was he was a fascinating individual.
Chuck Swirsky 1:50
Well, and just I said to you off the air and I've said this a couple of times, the news is as shocking as it is gutting. Who was Stacey to you?
Leila Rahimi 1:59
Yeah. Well, there are a lot of components to that question. It's a good question. So we're going to dial it back a little bit, and I'll give you a little history of Stacey.

How did Stacey King's college career influence his professional journey?

Leila Rahimi 2:09
So Stacey was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. Very celebrated high school basketball player. Five-star player. Recruited by everyone. And when I say everyone, we're talking about everyone. He was recruited by Kansas and Oklahoma, of course, but also DePaul. Joey Meyer and Jim Molinari, who was an assistant under Joey Meyer, took over for his dad in 84. They went after Stacey hard. And Stacey loved DePaul, but he loved the state of Oklahoma. Now keep in mind, we're talking about the Big Eight then. We're not talking about the Big 12. This is mid-80s. And so Stacey came in as a freshman, replacing an All-American by the name of Wayman Tisdale, who was a fabulous player. So Stacey goes to Oklahoma, kind of blends in for the first two years, has a breakout junior season where he averages double-doubles, 20 and 10.
Leila Rahimi 3:02
And he takes Oklahoma to the Final Four championship game at Kemper Arena in Kansas City in 1988. I was at that game. So because it's the Big Eight, They played each other twice. And in that series, Oklahoma beat Kansas twice. And Kansas featured a player by the name of Danny Manning. And so they meet, championship game, and Kansas beats Oklahoma by four. Danny Manny had a 31-17 game. Stacey, very solid, 17-7. He comes back for his senior year. We're talking about Stacey. Averages 26-10. They don't go to the championship round. But Stacey then is considered by many as the number one overall pick. He was the college player of the year. So now Sacramento has the first pick.

What made Stacey King a beloved figure in Chicago?

Leila Rahimi 3:53
And Purvis Ellison, who played at Louisville, takes Louisville to the championship game. They beat Duke. And so Purvis Ellison is the first pick in the draft, taken by Bill Russell, who is the coach of Sacramento. And Stacey drops to six. And it was a perfect scenario for him because, you know, he joins Jordan and Pippen just when the Bulls were turning the corner to go deep in the playoffs.

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