King McClure
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About the speaker
King McClure is a studio and game analyst for ESPN’s coverage of College Basketball and the NBA. He also covers the Dallas Mavericks for MavsTV, is the co-host for a show produced by the Big 12 Conference called Inside the Big 12, and joins Yahoo... More
King McClure is a studio and game analyst for ESPN’s coverage of College Basketball and the NBA. He also covers the Dallas Mavericks for MavsTV, is the co-host for a show produced by the Big 12 Conference called Inside the Big 12, and joins Yahoo Sports as an analyst for tentpole events like the NBA Draft and the Selection Show. For the last two years, King called the First Four in the NCAA Tournament on Westwood One Radio.
On ESPN, King can be seen regularly on NBA Today, and recently made his debut on the NBA Draft program breaking down prospects and player fits for NBA organizations.
King was a former top 40 national high school recruit with aspirations of becoming an NBA player and decided to attend Baylor University. In 2015, before playing his first collegiate game, King received news from doctors that his basketball career was over after test results concluded that he had a heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or HCM. Not ready to give up his dream, King consulted with various doctors and other members of the basketball community who have also suffered from the same condition. Finally, an HCM specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found a solution that would allow King to once again play the game he loved. He had a procedure to have a device implanted into his chest to protect his heart which would detect an abnormal rhythm and shock it back into safe range.
“Basketball was taken away from me,” King said. “And after that, I wanted to give it my all every time I stepped onto the court because I knew just how terrible it felt to not have basketball in my life.” He was able to rejoin his teammates in 2016, and had a stellar career at Baylor.
After publicly speaking about the adversity he faced, King received countless messages from people around the country, some of which faced the same challenges. “That’s the reason why I feel like I went through what I went through,” he said. “And that’s why I’m sharing my story and sharing my adversities now – for people who need hope.”
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