For years, Michael Jordan had said nothing publicly about his former teammate Stacey King, not when King’s broadcast career peaked, not when Chicago rallied around his voice during those lean Derrick Rose years. That silence broke on Sunday. Chicago Bulls legend Stacey King passed away at 59 on June 7. The team announced his death, leaving the franchise without the man who had loyally served it for 30 years. First as a champion, then as its storyteller.

King’s death hit NBA stars closest to him across two generations. And it took Jordan, a man famously selective about what moves him publicly, to say something first. In an official statement released by Jordan, the Hall of Famer expressed his grief over the loss of his long-time frontcourt teammate.

“I’m deeply saddened to learn of Stacey’s passing,” Jordan shared. “We shared some special years together as teammates, and he was part of a group that helped define an era of Chicago Bulls basketball. My thoughts are with Stacey’s family, friends, and everyone whose lives he touched.”

Jordan’s tribute anchors a massive wave of grief rolling through Chicago. MJ and King’s teammate, Scottie Pippen, also set aside the current friction within the Bulls dynasty to express his grief.

“Sad to hear about the passing of Stacey King,” Pippen wrote on X. “A champion, a great teammate, and a true ambassador for the game. His impact on the Bulls organization and the city of Chicago will be remembered for generations. Rest in peace, King.”

Pippen had famously appeared on Gimme the Hot Sauce in 2023, where he ignited a firestorm by calling Jordan a “horrible player.” While the internet picked sides, King did what he always did. The host played peacemaker, urging mutual respect and refusing to let the dynasty’s legacy crack under the weight of egos.

Jordan’s tribute now echoes Pippen’s, rather than contradicting it, and is partly King’s doing. He spent years insisting that the Bulls’ championships were a collective achievement, not a one-man show, and clearly, that message stuck. That glue guy may no longer be here. Yet he’s uniting multiple generations of Bulls legends who stepped forward to celebrate his dual impact as an elite teammate in the 1990s and a defining narrator for modern stars.

Derrick Rose moved Chicago with his tribute to Stacey King

The impact Stacey King had wasn’t just limited to teammates like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Beyond his playing days, King built a legendary second career behind the microphone, heavily influencing the next generation of Chicago basketball.

Former Bulls MVP Derrick Rose shared an emotional poem on his Instagram stories, a tribute to King’s play-by-play style when he famously narrated Deebo’s meteoric rise:

“Stacey King, your voice became a part of mine, calling moments out that now live beyond time.

When the lights got dim and the crowd moved on, your belief stayed strong and carried on.

You didn’t just call plays, you helped tell my story, from the pain of the struggle to the height of the glory.

So if my name still echoes, if my Rose still grows

A piece of that garden is yours… I hope you know.”

It can’t be put into words how much Rose’s tribute affected fans. Chi-Town responded to this poem with tearful messages and memories of Stacey King.

This sentiment was strongly reinforced on ESPN’s First Take by veteran journalist and Chicago native Michael Wilbon, who compared his cultural footprint to that of MLB broadcasting royalty.

“There was a Harry Caray-like effect he had on the listenership,” Wilbon stated.

It emphasizes that King’s booming charisma kept fans tuned in even during the franchise’s rebuilding years under D-Rose. Wilbon lauded King for delivering honest, objective basketball analysis without ever mocking the team, even if it was not the same as the MJ-Pip Bulls.

King’s championships and his second act made him a permanent ambassador for the Windy City. As the Bulls organization grapples with the loss, the collective tributes from Jordan, Pippen, Rose, and more reflect that while Stacey King won his rings as a significant defensive role player of the 1990s dynasty, he earned something rarer in the decades that followed: a city’s trust, night after night, word by word.