King and OBHS team-mates Tom Rowe and Morgan Nathan helped shine the light on basketball at a school which is better known for producing All Blacks than Tall Blacks, when they were named in the national side which contested the world under-19 championships in 2009.
The trio were joined by a fourth player from the region when Riki Buckrell, a former pupil of Waitaki Boys' High School, also made the squad.
All four have gone on to play in the National Basketball League. Nathan sits deep on the bench for the Hawkes Bay Hawks, Rowe is in his third season with the Nuggets and Buckrell his second, while King spent a year with the Harbour Heat before linking up with the Nuggets this season.
While the talented foursome called the shots at age group level, the transition to the NBL has been a difficult one.
"It's definitely been a big step up," King said.
"Especially the physicality. I'm used to being big for my age but when I stepped up to this league, everyone was my size."
At 2m and 125kg King takes up a lot of space in the paint and comes off the bench to rest Tall Blacks forward Craig Bradshaw and 2.11m American centre Lance Allred.
King played about 10min all season for the Heat but has been getting close to that amount of court time each week for the Nuggets.
He is a role player but has a nice touch for a big man and is a developing threat from the outside.
"I'm usually giving up a bit of height but what I bring is physicality and my bulk. I tried to get up under them and push them out of the lane."
King was invited to train with the Breakers as a development player in his last year at OBHS and spent three years in the camp.
He returned to Dunedin this year to play for the Nuggets and is studying for a bachelor of physical education degree at the University of Otago.
With former schoolmate Hayden Miller also part of the Nuggets wider squad, it feels "more of a family environment" than his time with the Heat, King said.
"It is more tight-knit, whereas at the Heat you'd turn up, do your training and play your game. But we have a lot more fun down here."
King is ambitious about his basketball carer. He would love to play professionally and, ultimately, for the Tall Blacks.
More immediately, though, King would like to help the Nuggets end a 33-game losing streak.
The Nuggets host the Manawatu Jets - the team it last beat in the league - at the Edgar Centre tomorrow night.
It used to be the Jets were one side the Nuggets could rely on beating. Not this season.
American guard Darryl Hudson is the competition's leading scorer, centre Nick Horvath is the second-equal leading rebounder, and point guard Jeremy Kench has pace and the ability to open up the defence.
