Bullets Looking to Bernard King for a Few More Miracles

Does anyone have this fantasy in which your phone rings and you pick it up and the voice on the line says, “Hold for the president of the United States.” And you say “yeah, right,” and hang up, only to find out it really was the chief executive?

This could happen to Bernard King too, but he won’t hang up.

King was told George Bush’s grandson is a big basketball fan. King is a basketball player. So one day King issued an open invitation to demonstrate basketball skills to Bush’s grandson--anytime.

Things escalated. And when the annual Spirit of America event came back to the Capital Centre in June, there were King and Bush, face to face.

“I reiterated the fact that I had extended an invitation to his grandson,” King said. “He thought it was very kind of me to offer that. He asked how would he get in contact with me. I was flabbergasted. I told (team owner) Mr. (Abe) Pollin and rehashed the story of what was happening and he extended the use of the Capital Centre.

“So when I extended the invitation (Bush) said: ‘Well we have the hoop at the White House that could be used. Mr. Pollin started to extend the Capital Centre phone number and Mr. Bush said, ‘No, Bernard, what’s your number?’ For a moment I almost forgot my home phone number.”

No doubt, somewhere in a sock drawer in the West Wing, there’s a slip of paper that says “Bernard-555- . . . “ But even if it’s never used, King has other things to do. It’s basketball season and the Washington Bullets need basketball miracles once again from their 32-year-old leader if they are going to surprise in the Atlantic Division.

“He knows what he’s got to do and he does it,” Coach Wes Unseld said. “There are going to be some nights he can’t do it. That’s because of age, injuries, and things that happen to everyone. But I’ll never have to worry that he won’t give 110 percent.”

King dedicated his summer to getting even more out of his body than last season, when he was second on the team in scoring at 20.7 points per game over 81 contests, missing just one Knicks game in February with the flu.

It was the most King has played since the 1980-81 season when he was at Golden State. It was a vindication of his rebuilt knee and of his work ethic. But since King doesn’t like to look back, it’s also forgotten as the Bullets continue training for this season.

He’s picked up where he was for most of last season, leading the team in scoring in five preseason games at 17.3 points per game, with a team-high 22 points in the loss to Chicago Friday night. He missed a game against the Miami Heat because of the hard floor at Florida Atlantic College.

All in all it makes the Bullets’ $3 million investment in King over the next two seasons look good, and their original decision to sign him away from New York visionary.

“You get a player like Bernard King, without having to give anything up, that’s a plus,” General Manager Bob Ferry said.

Such veterans usually rule their clubs with an iron hand, whether it be as the judge of a team’s kangaroo court or as a fiery orator, but King declines the notion that his example makes this his team.

“It’s Wes’s team, because he sets the tempo,” King said. “I think that we as players tend to follow his lead. The best example of that is what occurred last year here. If it was not for Wes not giving up the first half of the season and really telling this team that we can come back and wind up in the playoff chase, we never would have had the year we had.”

His game face is still one of the most dour in the league. He kibitzes with the younger players, but always seems to have a purpose.

“Bernard’s a true professional,” guard Jeff Malone said. “He’s quiet. My way is more relaxed. The way he comes into training camp is great. He’s hungry for the basketball and, me being an offensive player, I learn that kind of stuff from him.”

“All veterans have responsibilities toward the younger players who haven’t been around and don’t realize what it’s like to play in this league,” King said. “Mentally they aren’t always prepared because they’re accustomed to the college game schedule.

“If they look toward players like Jeff and myself or Darrell (Walker) and see us ready every night in practice, naturally they have to learn something from that.”

King may have learned something too, though he’s always been in great shape while with the Bullets. Still he spent the summer weightlifting regularly for the first time in his career. He took off some inches from his waist and upper torso, toned things up. While back in New Jersey, where he still has a home, he worked out with the Nets’ rookies.

He went to his treadmill and weights in the basement of his home. He ran 40 minutes on the treadmill, ran 18 minutes at 10 mph, then 8 mph. He lifted every day for a month, decreasing to four days a week, then three, over the rest of the summer.

“I’m probably a little heavier than I was last year, but I’m stronger and quicker,” he said. “In that first (preseason) game against Charlotte, Kelly (Tripucka) beat me on the back-door play and I was able to recover very quickly and go up and block the shot. I don’t know if I could have done that last year.”

He kept stretching. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may have revolutionized stretching in the NBA, but King’s been doing it since he went to the University of Tennessee. It’s one of the few things he gets vocal about.

“Guys were having little nagging pulls and injuries,” Malone said. “Bernard said, ‘You guys are not stretching after practice.’ I listened to it, because he knows what it’s all about. He had a major injury and came back.”

And he beat both rookie Lashaun McDaniel and Malone to win the 1 1/2-mile run in 8 minutes 44 seconds at Mount St. Mary’s College at the start of training camp. Afterward an unsuspecting and unknowledgeable poor soul asked him about his knee.

“I don’t discuss my knee,” he said. “I’m not talking about my knee anymore. Let’s just talk about basketball. I’ve demonstrated that my knee is not a problem. That subject’s over. ... I don’t want to talk about it.”

Other than his desire to improve, the increased weight also may increase stamina. His scoring fell off the last 10 games last season, though, as he says, it’s unfair to always look at scoring as a measure of a basketball player’s effectiveness.

That would be it, except Unseld too thinks King tailed off the last 10 games. His shot certainly looked flatter than it was earlier. He frequently hit the front rim.

“I felt good,” he said. “There were games where maybe I tried to score a few more points because that’s what I felt we needed, or Jeff tried to score a few more points. John (Williams) started really coming on at the end.”

And as always with King, that was then, this is now. Now he’d like to hear from a certain commander in chief. Your dime, Mr. President.

“I came to camp in shape,” King said, “and I’m ready to go.”