Name: Rich King
Team: Seattle Supersonics
Position: Center (Basketball)
Card Year: 1993
Card Maker: Topps
Card Number: 275
Rich King was taken by the Seattle Supersonics as the 14th overall pick of the 1991 NBA draft - a draft that included Larry Johnson going first overall to the still very new Charlotte Hornets, and Dikembe Mutombo going fourth to the Denver Nuggets. This was after a successful four years at Nebraska where at the time of this card's printing - King had the Nebraska single game, season, and career blocks records, as well as ranking third overall for all time rebounds. As of the current day he is still number 3 overall for career blocks with 183 and number 5 overall for total career rebounds with 761, fitting numbers given his huge 7 foot 2 frame. This card indicates that he had the single game block record with 7, however his name isn't shown in the Nebraska team reference page under that stat.
This is also the second Topps Stadium Club card I've picked out, Byron Evans being the first, if you're into that sort of thing. The reason I bring this up is The Sporting News skills rating system is also used here as it was on the Byron Evans card only with basketball skills instead. King gets 3.9's on both mobility and shooting range which to me translates to slightly above average (still assuming out of 5) - which feels generous but perhaps the card writer was grading on a curve given his size. However, that doesn't seem to be factored in at all to his 'intimidation' rating of 3.4 which is likely based on his poor 'defense' at 3.3.
So while this card also alludes to his ability to both "pass the rock" and shoot the proverbial "J", his opportunities to do either of these things, let alone anything else basketball-related, was greatly limited in his time with Seattle. He was only healthy during his rookie season, playing 40 games and averaging 5.3 minutes per game. After that he fell victim to a slew of injuries resulting in 6 total surgeries between his thumb, back, knees, and feet.
In a 2008 interview he describes the situation:
"Instead of being on the court, my memories of the Sonics are of being at Swedish Hospital, being in rehab, being with trainer Bob Medina. I'd never been hurt before that."
Following his rookie year, he only played 3 games in 1992-93, 27 games in 1993-94, and 2 games in 1994-95. After being dropped by Seattle, he went to training camp for Denver, Minnesota, and Vancouver, but did not make any rosters. He called it quits after his sixth and final surgery but remained in Washington, getting married and raising two sons, Christian and Beckham. Christian played the 2024-25 season for Washington as a 6'8 redshirt freshman forward and transferred to Montana State for the 25-26 season.
King's professional life has involved real estate, a current 14-year stint at Amazon, and most interestingly - starting an investment firm with former teammate, Detlef Schrempf a few years after his career ended.
Given all of this, I think it feels safe to say that while his NBA experience was a disappointment, Rich King is living a life like well, just that.
Sources:
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