December 4, 1998
BERKELEY, CA - By Brendan Daly
Anyone who has seen California men's basketball junior point guard Raymond "Circus" King play can understand how he got his nickname. With a grab bag full of flashy dribbling and passing moves, King often looks like a ringmaster, orchestrating his own little carnival on the court. But, since coming to Cal, King has learned to relinquish his lion-taming duties to the real ringleader-head coach Ben Braun.
A four-time all-league selection at local El Cerrito High School, the 5-10 guard grew up watching Cal basketball games and hoping to someday become a Golden Bear. However, then Cal head coach Todd Bozeman wasn't entirely convinced King could compete at the higher level, even after a senior campaign that saw both McDonald's and Blue-Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook name him an honorable mention All-American. So, King spent a year proving he could play Division I by leading San Diego State as the team's starting point guard in his first collegiate season. Allowed to run rampant in the Aztecs fast-paced, running-on-all-cylinders offense, King started 28 of 29 games and averaged 7.7 points and 5.2 assists per game and made the WAC All-Newcomer Team in 1996. "The Circus" gained quite a following in San Diego for the vibrant, flashy brand of basketball he brought to southern California.
After that explosive freshman season at San Diego State, Bozeman offered King a scholarship and he took it, sitting out the 1996-97 season due to NCAA transfer rules, before taking to the court for Cal last season.
His metamorphosis from an Aztec to a Bear was more extensive than just a change in uniforms. Switching over from the Western Athletic Conference to the more competitive Pac-10, King once again found himself having to prove his abilities.
A product of the Richmond blacktop pickup games, King was never the biggest guy on the court, rather far from it. To play, he had to prove himself. So, King learned that the way to get picked up on a team was to always push the envelope with his speed and dazzle the other guys with passing and dribbling, the cornerstones of any good point guard's game. That style was later fed by his annual participation in the Bay Area Summer Pro-Am League, where King played with the likes of Tim Hardaway, Gary Payton and former Cal greats Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jason Kidd. Much to his credit, King impressed the pros with his ability and hustle, and once again proved himself capable of holding his own.
Braun certainly liked King' speed, dribbling and passing abilities, but he wanted to harness that natural ability and center the raw talent into fundamentals to achieve a greater goal-team success.
"Playing point guard is about helping your team succeed," said Braun. "It's never about the individual or big plays."
The Cal coach worked on harnessing King's quickness, helping the guard utilize what Braun calls going "green, yellow and red"; the tactic of utilizing three different speeds to aid in running the offense and setting the pace of the game. And, Braun believes that King made a successful change for the Bears last season.
"I thought Raymond made tremendous strides last year," said Braun. "I think he went from a player early in the season who was trying to show what he could do, to a player who was trying to show what our team could do. I think playing against some of the other top point guards in our league gave him experience and taught him the value of helping our team to succeed."
King most assuredly proved he could hold his own against the other point guards in the Pac-10 last year. He scored 11 points opposite Stanford's Arthur Lee in last season's conference home game loss to the Cardinal. King also had four assists and seven points with only one turnover versus Mike Bibby and Arizona, adding five assist performances against USC, UCLA and Oregon to lead the team in assists with 89.
After a six point, four assists, one turnover performance at USC last year, Braun told an Oakland Tribune reporter King "played in control all night, and dictated the tempo offensively and defensively."
Although senior Geno Carlisle has made the switch from shooting guard to starting point guard, King's job is no less important this year.
"I think he'll (King) be able to be a better defensive player for us this year and put more pressure on the ball," said Braun of King, who was second on the team in steals last year, with 39. "And, I think in terms of distributing the ball and knocking down jump shots, he'll be able to do that."
It now seems that King has found his niche. He has proven himself capable of playing with the best in the Pac-10 and as a result has found a home at Cal. After making the transition from a flashy, razzle-dazzle playmaker to a solid and steady point guard, it appears "the Circus" will be staying in town for awhile.
