John Starks

John Levell Starks (born August 10, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

After high school, he enrolled at Rogers State College in 1984.

While at Rogers State, Starks was on the "taxi squad" of the basketball team for backups to replace injured or suspended players; taxi squad players did not suit up and instead watched games from the stands.

However, Starks was expelled from Rogers State for stealing another student's stereo equipment in retaliation for the student breaking into Starks' dorm room and the college holding him and his roommates financially responsible for the damage.

Starks transferred to Northern Oklahoma College in spring 1985, made the basketball team there, and was sentenced to five days in jail for the robbery.

He served the sentence during spring break.

In the fall of 1985, Starks averaged 11 points per game with Northern Oklahoma but left the college after being caught smoking cannabis in his dorm.

Having worked at a Safeway supermarket, Starks enrolled at Tulsa Junior College in the summer of 1986 to pursue a business degree.

While playing intramural basketball, he came to the attention of Ken Trickey, the former coach of Oral Roberts University who was then starting a basketball program for Oklahoma Junior College.

He was undrafted in the 1988 NBA draft after attending four colleges in his native Oklahoma, including Oklahoma State University.

Starks played there for a season, then earned a scholarship at Oklahoma State University in 1988, where he finished his collegiate career.

Undrafted in the 1988 NBA draft, Starks signed with the Golden State Warriors in September 1988 as a free agent.

However, as the Warriors had drafted fellow shooting guard Mitch Richmond with the fifth overall pick that year, Starks played limited minutes in only 36 games while Richmond won Rookie of the Year.

Starks played stints in the Continental Basketball Association (Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets, 1989–90) and World Basketball League (Memphis Rockers, 1990–91).

Starks was named an NBA All-Star while playing for the New York Knicks in the 1990s.

Starks was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he attended Tulsa Central High School.

At Tulsa Central, Starks played only one year on the basketball team.

In 1990, Starks tried out for the New York Knicks.

In one practice, he tried to dunk on Knicks center Patrick Ewing.

Ewing threw him down and Starks twisted his knee.

The team was not allowed to release him unless it healed by the end of December.

When it did not heal by that time, the Knicks could not release him.

As a result, Starks has referred to Ewing as his saving grace.

Starks eventually became the starting shooting guard, becoming a key player on the team and playing eight seasons in New York, from 1990 to 1998.

Starks was a poster child for their physical play during that era, along with teammates Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley.

He was a participant in the 1992 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

Starks executed one of the most famous plays in Knicks history, a play that became known simply as "The Dunk".

In Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls, Starks was in the court's right corner, and closely guarded by B. J. Armstrong.

Ewing came to set a screen for Starks, who faked to the left, as if to exploit the screen, but then drove along the baseline and, with his left hand, dunked over both Horace Grant and Michael Jordan as Jordan came over to help.

One of the low points of Starks' career came in the 1994 NBA Finals against the Houston Rockets.

In the closing seconds of Game 3 and the Knicks trailing by three, Starks was fouled by Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon while attempting a three-pointer.

At the time, the NBA allowed only two free throws during a foul on a three-pointer.

Starks made both, but Houston won 93–89 (the league would change the rule to allow three free throws the next season).

Starks and the Knicks then watched their home court host the New York Rangers' first Stanley Cup celebration in 54 years, with their 3–2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.

It served as an inspiration for the Knicks to recover to take a 3–2 series lead going into Game 6.

However, in the final seconds of Game 6, Olajuwon blocked Starks' last-second three-point attempt to give Houston an 86–84 victory.

In Game 7, Starks had one of the worst games of his career, shooting 2-for-18 from the field, including 1-for-10 in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets went on to win the game and the championship.

In 1995, Starks became the first player to hit 200 three pointers in a single season.

In the offseason, Pat Riley left the Knicks to go to the Miami Heat after a dispute with then General Manager Dave Checketts.