Thomas Van Dyke King (March 9, 1924 – November 12, 2015) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played a season for the Detroit Falcons of the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...

(BAA), the league that would later become the modern

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

. After a college career at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, King signed with the Falcons in 1946. King (who would later prove successful in business) negotiated roles as publicity director, business manager and travelling secretary for the team. This combination of duties netted him an annual salary of $16,500, making him the highest paid player in the league, despite averaging only 5.1

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

on the season. King was married to Canadian figure skater and Olympic gold medallist,

Barbara Ann Scott Barbara Ann Scott (May 9, 1928 – September 30, 2012) was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion (1944–46, 48) in ladies' singles. Kn ...

BAA career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

* 1924 births 2015 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Ingham County, Michigan Basketball players from Cincinnati Detroit Falcons (basketball) players Guards (basketball) Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players People from East Lansing, Michigan {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub