Metrolina Christian’s Emily King is The Observer’s 2024-25 comeback athlete of the year
Everything was going right for Emily King.
She found her place on the Metrolina Christian Academy girls’ basketball team at the end of her sophomore year. During the final game of that same year, King hit six 3-pointers. She had an explosive AAU season before her junior year. She was more than prepared to take over her high school team. King’s dream of playing college basketball felt closer than ever.
“It was like she was on the top of the world and we could not wait to see what was gonna happen going into her junior year,” her mom, Mary King, said.
Then, in August 2023 came the scrimmage that changed everything. She was on offense when she was pushed from behind. Her knee slammed into the floor and exploded. She tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus, all major ligaments in the knee. Her future went from college offers to months of recovery.
“I had dreamed about playing college basketball since I was in kindergarten,” King said. “And so it just kind of felt like my life had been taken away.”
Almost two years later, King made it back on the top of the world.
In June, she was named The Charlotte Observer’s comeback athlete of the year. The guard reached 1,000 points and broke the school record for most 3s in a game during her senior season. In August, she’ll begin her freshman year at Grove City College after committing to the women’s basketball team.
But the possibility of returning to the player she had been before seemed distant sitting in the doctor’s office after her injury. He told her it would take at least nine months to heal.
She cried, mourning the year that could have been.
“It was a really sad moment because I wasn’t sure at that point,” King said of her basketball future. “I had a lot of interest from college coaches, and I was scared that it was going to be taken away. I think I was also kind of grieving because the next two years were supposed to be my years.”
Still, she only gave herself a day to be upended before she figured out small ways to be around basketball.
Days after surgery, King started doing ball-handling drills in a chair placed in her garage. She attended team workouts to support her friends. Mary King said her daughter wouldn’t allow herself to be upset around the team, but it showed on the way home.
King completed physical therapy up to four times a week. She did stretches every day. She tried to walk two miles a day.
In winter 2024, King and her parents traveled to Wheaton College for her first visit. She wasn’t wearing a knee brace anymore, but she still had months of recovery in front of her.
Mary King couldn’t help it. She started crying while they talked to the coaches. She thought a silent prayer.
“I was like, ‘Please, Lord, she wants this so much,’” Mary King said. “She wants this so much because at that point we didn’t know is she going to get cleared on time to play for the summer? Is she going to have that?”
Her goal was to be healthy by July 2024, the time when college coaches can come and watch players practice. But in April, King began to feel worse. She started feeling sick at school. Sometimes, she would even pass out.
Her iron levels were so low that the doctors questioned how she got out of bed in the morning. They didn’t know what caused the iron deficiency, and couldn’t comprehend that she was somehow completing physical therapy and training.
So, on top of her injury, weekly blood infusions began.
“I was just really discouraged and didn’t know what the future held and if I was going to be able to get any offers the summer before my senior year,” King said.
It’s a 35-minute drive from Indian Trail to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Charlotte. Infusions usually take around two hours. The first two times, King fell asleep right after the appointment. By the time she received her third infusion, she went to help at a basketball camp for elementary school kids.
She didn’t tell anyone about her blood disorder.
“I think she didn’t want anybody to think, ‘Oh, you can’t do this,’” Mary King said. “Like you’re not strong enough to keep playing basketball.”
Her doctors never did figure out the reason for her illness, but King was cleared on June 11, in time for the live period. She attended a camp with her summer team that same weekend in Charleston.
She cried before the game.
“It was a long nine months and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play again,” King said. “And I think just being back with my teammates and my best friends on the court, it was really emotional.”
King’s parents watched, excited for her return and nervous about the possibility of her being reinjured.
Slowly, she started to become the player she’d been before. Summer ended, and her senior year of high school began. She had a few more goals to check off the list.
Reach 1,000 points. Play college basketball.
Metrolina Christian played South Charlotte in early January. King made 10 3-pointers en route to a 43-point performance.
“I think she could have made more,” Mary King said. “But it was like she couldn’t miss.”
A week later, she reached 1,000 points.
After every game, King came off the court and told her parents she would never assume she would always play. She unwillingly stayed on the sidelines, lived through silent car rides holding it together and imagined a world where she could never play again. Each time she took the court became a blessing. And she’ll feel that when she takes the court for her freshman year at Grove City.
“I’m a lot happier when I play,” King said. “I don’t take any moment or any game for granted. When I make mistakes, it’s easier to get back up and just keep playing because I was out for so long, and in that year, so many things happened. I would say I just play a lot more free.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
