He played 14 seasons with the New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and Washington Bullets.

Reflecting on this time, King noted how the parks provided a space where he could focus entirely on basketball, teaching him discipline and motivating him to pursue greatness.

His time in college prepared him for his future in professional basketball, and he was subsequently selected as the seventh overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets.

On a Texas road trip on January 31 and February 1, 1984, King made history by becoming the first player since Rick Barry in 1967 to score at least 50 points in consecutive games.

In the first round, the Bullets lost a contested five-game series 3–2 against the up-and-coming Detroit Pistons, who would go on to make the NBA Finals.

[16][17] At 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and 205 pounds, King was an explosive, high-scoring small forward utilizing long arms and a quick release.

At the age of 24, King won the NBA Comeback Player of the Year Award for his play during the 1980–1981 season with the Golden State Warriors.

[9][18] On February 13, 2007, Bernard King's number 53 was retired at the halftime of the Tennessee-Kentucky basketball game at Thompson–Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee.

[22] King is now working as a part-time broadcaster for NBA TV as well as the MSG Network, filling in on some occasions as color commentator when Walt Frazier is on vacation.

In July 1977, a month after being drafted by the Nets, King was arrested and charged with burglary for breaking into a UT athletics building to steal a television set.

[25] In December 1978, King was arrested by the NYPD while sleeping in his car with "less than $10 worth" of cocaine on hand, and was charged with several misdemeanors, later dropped.

[28][29] That June, he would plead guilty to a reduced charge of attempted forcible sexual abuse, and received a fine and suspended sentence.

In August 1994, an intoxicated King was arrested in New York and charged with assaulting a 22-year-old woman in his apartment, after allegedly grabbing her around the neck in an altercation (for which she was treated for bruises at a local hospital).

[32][33] In October 2004, King was again arrested in New York for battery of his wife Shana, who told authorities he had pushed her to the ground three times; the incident left her black and blue with bruises on her eye and swelling on her forehead.