Coach Tiago Splitter's Chicago Bulls dropped their 2026-27 NBA season opener at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Wednesday night by a score of 135-92 on what was an emotional night for play-by-play man Adam Amin. 

The game included a solo first quarter broadcast from Amin, who lost his partner, former Bulls forward/center Stacey King, on June 7, 2026 after he died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease. 

"We love you very much, Stacey, and we appreciate everything you did for us, everything you did with us," Amin said according to The Chicago Tribune about King on the live broadcast. 

The duo had been together since October of 2018. Amin was later joined by former Purdue Boilermakers and Big Ten Network star Robbie Hummel, who joined Amin after the first quarter, and after Amin was given the opportunity to speak his peace on his late friend and colleague. 

Amin looked back on his time with King fondly during the broadcast, saying his time with the vivacious and at times hysterical King was a "unique experience" every night. 

"Our broadcast felt like a unique experience every night, even if the reference points or inside jokes were all too familiar, Stacey King made them feel fresh, and new, and fun.

"Who wouldn't want to spend more time with someone who possesses that gift? It's why people watched whether they were Bulls fans or not, and it's why we had so much fun whether the Bulls won or not," Amin said. 

"When we worked together, I never wanted to hinder his gift...I wanted to punch the call, and then get out of the way, and experience, along with everyone else watching and listening, the exuberance of my friend, as he maximized the moment and memory, as he often and almost always did." 

Amin's tribute continued as he remembered his friendship on and off the court with King, the three-time former Bulls champion (1991-1993) as a player whom he called "one of one."  

"I never wanted to get in the way of his energy, or his poetry, or his song, jingle or otherwise. Harper Lee wrote that Mockingbirds simply sing their hearts out for us," Amin said, comparing King to a mockingbird.

"And that it was a sin to kill one. And I thought it would be a broadcast sin to silence this bird...This one-of-one....There was nobody like him doing the job. There was nobody like him in my life, a big brother, an uncle, a great friend all-in-one. He knew my partner and our son. He Facetimed me from my nephew's high school gym because he and my nephew recognized each other.

"He made me feel like family, just by singing his song. Right now, there is no nuance that soothes this loss, a mockingbird has died, and the song has died with him, and my heart breaks for us, for his people...For his sons. But I know exactly who he was, I know what his gift could do, and I know that we are all just a little happier, a little better off, for getting to hear his song for as long as we did," Amin concluded in the tribute video, which was shared by CHSN. 

The Bulls' next game is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 23 at the FiServ Forum in Milwaukee, a chance for Splitter's team to get on the winning track, and for Amin to continue to move on after the loss of one of Chicago's most beloved sports personalities in recent memory.