The play-by-play announcer describes “who” and “what.” A general sense of which players are performing acts germane to the goal of winning a game or match, often punctuating or supplementing important or exciting moments with specific words or volume or intonation.The analyst gives nuance and context to those acts performed. The “how” and “why” coming from a voice of some credibility, usually a former player or coach with experience and understanding of the game and situations being contested.A decade ago when I began calling play-by-play for NBA games, I had come to know this formula as a psychological baseline in presenting sports. Here are two distinct voices for the human brain to process and absorb: Voice “A” delivering “who and what,” Voice “B” delivering “how and why.” An easy exercise to provide a comfortable experience for a viewer, a tried-and-true formula fostered over a half-century that most fans have an understanding and expectation of when they watch and listen to a sporting event.Stacey King blew up the formula. He rewired the brains of an entire city. And he did it purely by being himself. An irresistible, infectious and undeniable force of energy, passion and basketball poetry. He was my broadcast partner for eight years and felt like a friend for much, much longer.He passed away Sunday at 59, a number frustratingly insuffucient for how big his life seemed and wholly inaccurate compared to his vitality.Stacey King played 344 regular-season games with the Bulls, winning titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993. (Manny Millan / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images / Getty Images)King was an All-American forward for the powerhouse Oklahoma Sooners in the late 1980s, garnering significant attention from national media. So the journalism student and disciplined son of a career military man needed to project comfort on camera during interviews and off-camera with broadcasters.He possessed a sharp wit and big personality, so he naturally gravitated to Dick Vitale, a larger-than-life and one-of-a-kind analyst whose personalized touches and catchphrases bucked the trend of play-by-play announcers punctuating moments with their own verbal stylings. Vitale showed that emotion and authentic reaction, plated perhaps with a catchphrase or some humor and garnished with love, were the ultimate way to feed this high-speed, highlight-infused sport to the masses.This was King’s blueprint for the next 35 years of a basketball life, almost all of it taking place in Chicago, a city that eventually adopted him as one of its sons.