Stacey King, OU and Chicago Bulls legend, dies at 59

Oklahoma Athletics announced that Stacey King, an OU men’s basketball All-American and longtime member of the Chicago Bulls organization, has died. He was 59. The university said King passed away this weekend and emphasized his impact as a player, an Oklahoma native, and later as a television analyst who became familiar to fans long after his college and NBA careers ended.

King starred under coach Billy Tubbs from the 1985-86 through 1988-89 seasons, when Oklahoma compiled a combined 115-29 record (.799). During that stretch, OU captured the 1988 and 1989 Big Eight regular-season titles, won the 1988 Big Eight Tournament, reached the 1988 NCAA Championship Game, and made Sweet 16 appearances in both 1987 and 1989. OU’s statement described King as a “silky-smooth left-handed” scorer and blocker whose presence changed both ends of the court.

In college, King’s statistical peak arrived in a pair of seasons that turned him into one of the nation’s most dominant two-way interior players. As a junior in 1987-88, OU said he averaged 22.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, and as a senior in 1988-89 he averaged 26.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 rejections. Oklahoma tied those years to national results, calling King a key piece in OU earning No. 1 NCAA Tournament seeds in both seasons and driving a combined 65-10 (.867) record over the two-year span.

OU also detailed how his postseason production and program records followed him long after the NCAA runs ended. The school said King finished his Oklahoma career as the Sooners’ all-time postseason leader in games played (12), points (246), scoring average (20.5) and rebounds (93). It added that he was the Big Eight career blocked shots leader with 228 blocks, and that he scored at least 30 points 16 times, second-most in program history.

After OU, King was selected No. 6 overall in the 1989 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. He went on to win three consecutive NBA titles with the Bulls from 1991 through 1993, and later returned to Chicago’s broadcast booth for more than two decades, according to and the Bulls’ public statements reported by major outlets. The NBA and the Bulls both framed his career as more than a playing résumé, pointing to how his game knowledge and personality carried into broadcasts.

University of Oklahoma coach Porter Moser called King “a true Oklahoma legend” and said OU planned to “thoughtfully honor him throughout our upcoming season.” In separate OU historical context, the university noted that King’s No. 33 jersey was honored at the Lloyd Noble Center on Jan. 19, 2008, formally placing him among the program’s most celebrated figures.

For OU, King’s death lands as a reminder that basketball’s storied eras often live through the people who built them. For the Bulls, it is a loss felt in both legacy and daily routine, because King became, for many fans, the recognizable voice tied to some of Chicago’s most enduring championship memories. What to watch next is how OU and the Bulls manage tributes, including whether additional details emerge about memorial moments and broadcast plans in the days ahead. (No cause of death was provided in the initial announcements.)