MARYLAND FORWARD ALBERT KING MARCH 17, 1980

When Albert King was 13, he was the focus of a segment on the
ABC network evening news. When he was 14, he was featured in the
classic book on urban basketball, Heaven Is a Playground. King
was a college All-America at 20, an NBA first-round draft pick
at 21 and a retired millionaire at 32. Yet in the fall of 1995,
at 35, he was mopping bathrooms, wiping tables and manning the
till at a Wendy's in Wayne, Pa. "People did a double take," King
says. "They were thinking, He played NBA basketball; now he's
working at a cash register? What happened?"

That question has dogged King for years. He was barely in his
teens when he began carving out his legend on the courts of
Brooklyn's Foster Park. By the time he was a senior at Fort
Hamilton High in 1976-77, he was being hailed as the best New
York City schoolboy player since Lew Alcindor a decade before.
But save for some bright moments at Maryland--he landed on the
SI cover above after leading the Terps to a couple of
early-round NCAA tournament wins--King's accomplishments fell
well short of the outsized expectations engendered by his high
school career. He played eight nondescript seasons in the NBA
with the New Jersey Nets, the Philadelphia 76ers and the San
Antonio Spurs, and after spending some time in the CBA and pro
leagues in Italy and Israel, he returned for a final, six-game
stint with the Washington Bullets during the 1991-92 season.
Meanwhile, older brother Bernard, a three-time All-America at
Tennessee, had been a four-time NBA All-Star.

After Albert retired he flirted with the idea of entering the
real estate business. However, after investing in a Wendy's, he
decided he wanted to own a franchise. He began the company's
16-week management training program by working every position as
a crew member in Wayne and finished his training at other
Pennsylvania franchises in the towns of Thorndale, Harrisburg
and North Hanover. It was an enlightening experience in more
ways than one. "Some of the North Hanover people told me they
liked to go cow-tipping on weekends," King says. "I had never
heard of that. We didn't have many cows in Brooklyn."

Today, at 37, King is an owner of a Wendy's in Englewood, N.J.,
and he hopes to acquire more franchises. As for the
disappointment of his pro basketball career, he says, "My life
experience has been great. Sure, things could have been better,
but I'm not going to let other people's perceptions make or
break me. My story has moved on."

--SETH DAVIS

COLOR PHOTO: MANNY MILLAN [Cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED featuring Albert King]