World B. Free: The Artist Formerly Known as Lloyd, 1983

There is a maturity about Free that had been missing before, partly because his Gus Williams-style balding pate, gives him a look beyond his years. But that maturity largely is due to his growth as an athlete, as a leader.

Chris Webber’s Growing Pains, 1996 

They slap hands, and Webber heads for the locker room, where he straps on an ice pack, sits by his locker, and talks about his ultimate goal in life, the one above basketball, the one above everything. “I want to be a man of the people,” he says.

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.