Billy McGill: Over the Hill, In the Valley, and Rising Up Again, 1977

McGill was back on the street. He called Walter Kennedy, then the NBA commissioner, asking whether he had any pension funds due him. He did not; he had not played long enough. “I called collect,” he said, “and I had to look around for a dime.

The Resurrection of Bernard King, 1982

In his place is an introspective 24-year-old man capable of this amazing restitution. And the common thread through it all has been King’s explosive talents as a basketball player.