Leonard King (basketball)

This article is about the American basketballer. For the Australian politician, see Len King. For the Australian cricket umpire, see Len King (umpire).

Leonard King (born July 3, 1966) was an American professional basketball player who played in New Zealand as an import for various teams from 1991–1997.

For most of that time he was the star player for the Otago Nuggets in the NBL. He is the 4th All-time leading scorer in the history of the NBL averaging 25.6 points a game. He teamed up with former New Zealand Tall Black skipper Glen Denham to provide a formidable one-two punch for the Otago Nuggets.

Originally from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, he graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1984. He was selected as the Player of the Year for the Lake Erie League. He graduated of Florida A&M University and averaged 22 points in his senior year. An honorable mention All-American, he tried out with the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association before heading to New Zealand.

He has played in France, Luxembourg as well as New Zealand. Known for his fierce competitive nature and his athletic ability, King was always ranked among the top imports every year he played. He worked for Basketball New Zealand as their High Performance coach and assistant coach of the New Zealand Men's National team Tall Blacks in 2005 and 2006.

He coached the Mackay Meteors in the Australian Queensland Basketball League (QBL) from 2007–2010, twice being named the QBL Coach of the year (2009 & 2010) an award which is determined by the other coaches in the League.