December 25, 1984: For about a year now, the best basketball player in the world has not been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, or Julius Erving, and certainly not newly-minted NBA rookie Michael Jordan. It's been Bernard King.
The Brooklyn native, who had starred at the University of Tennessee with later Knick teammate Ernie Grunfeld -- they called it "The Bernie and Ernie Show" -- had just turned 28, and was dropping stunning performances, game after game. On January 31 and February 1, 1984, he became the 1st NBA (or ABA) player in 17 years to score at least 50 points in back-to-back games.
On this Christmas Day, he came down the chimney at Madison Square Garden and scored 60 points, a record for the "new" Garden that opened in 1968. He scored 21 points in the 1st quarter, 19 in the 2nd, 11 in the 3rd, and 9 in the 4th.
In spite of this performance for the New York Knicks, the cross-river New Jersey Nets beat them, 120-114. Micheal Ray Richardson scored 36 for New Jersey. (Yes, he spells his name "Micheal," not "Michael.")
King was only the 10th player in NBA history to score at least 60 in a game. Joe Fulks was the 1st to do it, with 63 in a 1949 game for the Philadelphia Warriors. George Mikan scored 61 in a 1952 game for the Minneapolis Lakers. Fulks and Mikan were the only players to do it before the 1954 institution of the 24-second shot clock.
Wilt Chamberlain had done it 32 times, topping out at 100. At the time, the record for anyone other than Chamberlain was 78, by David Thompson, on the last day of the 1977-78. On the exact same day, George Gervin scored 63, and won the scoring title for the season.
Elgin Baylor had scored 60 or more 4 times, including a Playoff record 61 in 1962. On November 15, 1960, Baylor topped out at 71, against the Knicks at "the old Garden," and that remains a record for any building named Madison Square Garden, college or pro.
The other players to score 60 in an NBA game before King were Jerry West with 63 in 1962, Rick Barry with 63 in 1974, and Pete Maravich with 68 in 1977.
Sadly, 'Nard saw his reign come to an end on March 23, 1985, with a terrible knee injury in Kansas City. He had been averaging 32.9 points per game up until then, and that would lead the league. That game ended up being the 1st of 12 straight games the Knicks, already plagued with injuries, lost the end the season. Then they got the 1st pick in the 1985 NBA Draft, and selected Patrick Ewing.
King came back for 6 games at the end of the 1986-87 season. The Knicks thought that was all they could get out of him, so they traded him to the Washington Bullets. Incredibly, he played 4 seasons for them, including 1988-89, when he played in 81 out of 82 games; and 1989-90, when he played in all 82. He missed 1991-92 in its entirety, again due to the knee, and closed his career with the team with whom he started -- the Nets, playing 32 games in 1992-93.
He was 37 years old. Knick fans can only wonder what they could have done from the Autumn of 1985 to the Spring of 1993 with a healthy Bernard King added to Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson and Charles Oakley.
His injuries kept his career numbers down. He was belatedly elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was not named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996, but was named to their 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players in 2021.
King's 60 remains a record for the new Garden, while Baylor's 71 remains a record for any Garden. The college record was set by Oscar Robertson of the University of Cincinnati, scoring 56 points to outscore Seton Hall all by himself on January 9, 1958.
Scoring 60 points in an NBA game has now been done 78 times, most recently by Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics on April 30, 2021.
*
December 25, 1984 was a Tuesday. Elsewhere in the NBA that Christmas Day:
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 109-106 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-108 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 106-97 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
The day saw no games in the NHL, and no bowl games in college football.