Inside The Huskies

Huskies Offer Long-Range-Shooting Son of Former Sonic

Christian King stands six inches shorter than his father.

Dan Raley

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The University of Washington men's basketball program is doing its level-headed best to bring back the Seattle Sonics. At least their descendants.

On Monday, the Huskies offered a scholarship to the son of one of that once-proud NBA franchise's No. 1 draft picks, 6-foot-8 long-range shooter Christian King from Seattle Preparatory School. 

He's the offspring of 7-foot-2 former center Rich King, who played collegiately for Nebraska before being taken with the 14th overall selection by the Sonics in the 1992 NBA draft.

While injuries curtailed the older King's career, turning him into a financial analyst and even someone who sold private jet leases, his son from the Class of 2023 looks healthy enough.

Especially with his  big-league wrist flip from behind the line.

In the Metro tourney last season, this King dazzled everyone by hitting 15 of 25 3-point shots and averaging 23 points per game. He later helped Seattle Prep finish third in 3A state tournament.

During the summer, he upped his recruiting stock with a successful showing at a national basketball event in Atlanta.

He holds other school offers from UC Santa Barbara, Seattle University, Lehigh and Pepperdine. 

We caught up with Rich King 14 years ago and told his story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which disappeared as a newspaper a year after the Sonics did. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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