Whether you know and love John Starks for The Dunk in the '93 playoffs, or know and hate John Starks for going cold in game 7 of the '94 finals, you at least know him as a famous professional basketball player.
And that basically wasn't suppose to happen. Odds-wise, logic-wise, expectations-wise, there was no way Starks was making it to the NBA, let alone thriving there. Ask any of the coaches who saw him in high school, or Jr college, or even his first NBA coach Don Nelson. (okay technically, yes, Nelson thought Starks could make the NBA because he did give him a roster spot, but Nelson took that roster spot away as soon as he possibly could).
To see John Starks before he was the New York Knicks' John Starks, let's look through the prism.
And that basically wasn't suppose to happen. Odds-wise, logic-wise, expectations-wise, there was no way Starks was making it to the NBA, let alone thriving there. Ask any of the coaches who saw him in high school, or Jr college, or even his first NBA coach Don Nelson. (okay technically, yes, Nelson thought Starks could make the NBA because he did give him a roster spot, but Nelson took that roster spot away as soon as he possibly could).
To see John Starks before he was the New York Knicks' John Starks, let's look through the prism.
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00:00 Whether you know and love John Starks for the dunk
00:03 in the '93 playoffs, or know and hate John Starks
00:08 for going cold in game seven of the '94 finals,
00:11 you at least know him as a famous
00:14 professional basketball player,
00:16 the quintessential '90s New York Knick.
00:19 And that basically wasn't supposed to happen.
00:22 So some episodes of Prism focus on how the press
00:26 and fans saw a player early in his career.
00:29 Well, we can't do that with this one,
00:32 because the press and fans were not aware
00:34 John Starks existed for years and years and years.
00:39 He was nowhere near the radar.
00:41 Instead, we'll focus on coaches
00:43 who noticed him over the years.
00:45 There was the offensive-minded coach
00:47 who didn't think Starks was junior college ball caliber,
00:50 the pro-coaching legend who thought
00:52 Starks could possibly make it in the NBA,
00:55 the other legend who disagreed,
00:58 and one of the greatest coaches ever
01:00 who saw him as a bench player, at first.
01:03 Let's see the John Starks these coaches saw.
01:07 Let's look through the Prism.
01:09 Oklahoma junior college coach Ken Trickey,
01:16 of Oral Roberts basketball fame,
01:18 didn't think John Starks was that good.
01:21 Might just seem like Ken Trickey is a terrible scout,
01:24 but Starks' basketball resume when he bent Trickey
01:27 didn't inspire confidence.
01:30 Starks basically didn't play varsity basketball
01:32 in high school.
01:33 Some of that was due to late blooming, sure.
01:36 The kid was 5'6" as a junior,
01:38 but a lot of it was due to conflicts with coaches.
01:43 And antithetical to the late bloomer idea,
01:46 teenage Starks had made a name for himself
01:48 in the competitive Tulsa pickup scene.
01:51 As a high school senior who'd grown quite a few inches,
01:54 he dunked on Anthony Bowie,
01:56 who at the time was attracting D1 offers.
01:59 Bowie would go on to star with the Sooners
02:02 and then play in the NBA.
02:03 Right after high school,
02:05 Starks only made the practice squad at Rogers State
02:08 and then got kicked out for stealing from a teammate.
02:11 Bowie, to be fair, had vandalized his dorm.
02:14 Starks then made the team
02:16 and got a scholarship at Northern Oklahoma College,
02:19 but got kicked out for smoking weed in the dorms.
02:22 And at this point,
02:24 Starks spent some time away from education
02:26 and organized basketball because he didn't have a choice.
02:31 He got a job bagging groceries
02:33 and stocking shelves at Safeway.
02:35 And he stayed active in the Tulsa pickup scene,
02:37 doing well enough to qualify
02:39 for the 1986 Pigs Pop-Off tournament,
02:41 which sounds kind of local and farmer-ish,
02:45 but was actually quite legit.
02:47 Pros and college stars played.
02:49 That year, Starks held his own against Carl Malone
02:52 and college players destined for the NBA,
02:55 Dennis Rodman, Wayman Tisdale, and Anthony Bowie.
02:58 Starks made the tournament all-star team, which is great.
03:01 Surely made him feel really good,
03:04 but it wasn't gonna give him a life.
03:07 So in the fall, he enrolled in Tulsa Junior College
03:11 to get a business degree.
03:13 He was not pursuing basketball
03:15 as more than a hobby at this time.
03:17 Tulsa Junior College didn't even have a team.
03:21 Starks was just trying to get his feet under him.
03:23 Wasn't trying to become a basketball player.
03:26 He played intramurals 'cause, I mean,
03:28 he still enjoyed basketball.
03:30 And he was impressive enough there
03:33 that word got to Ken Trickey, the former D1 coach
03:36 who had just accepted the head coaching role
03:38 at a different Oklahoma junior college.
03:41 Trickey gave Starks a tryout, but wasn't super impressed.
03:44 Thought at least a dozen kids were better than him.
03:47 But what the hell?
03:48 John Starks asked/pleaded nicely,
03:51 so why not let the kid sit on his bench?
03:54 And Trickey liked to give people chances.
03:56 Perhaps the fact that he himself had been bumped down
03:58 from D1 to junior college after a drunk driving arrest
04:01 and a lousy stint at Iowa State
04:03 influenced his philosophy there.
04:05 So Starks was on the team, sort of.
04:09 How does a guy who can't get in a game at a tiny school
04:13 become an NBA name?
04:16 It started with a dunk.
04:18 One game, in garbage time,
04:20 Starks dunked over Joey Johnson,
04:22 brother of Celtics star Dennis Johnson,
04:25 and the guy who held the state high jump record.
04:27 And Trickey decided to get Starks some more minutes.
04:32 Before long, Starks was starting and on scholarship.
04:35 Local papers praised him.
04:37 He could dunk, rebound, drive, pass.
04:39 He made his teammates better.
04:41 Finally, things were going well for John Starks.
04:44 Finally, the way people were talking about him
04:46 matched the reputation he has now,
04:49 but the scale was still off.
04:52 These were local papers talking about a small school.
04:55 Nationally, he wasn't known.
04:59 Yet about a year later,
05:01 Larry Brown thought Starks had the potential
05:03 to make an NBA roster.
05:04 Wait, how was Larry Brown even aware of Starks?
05:09 Well, because John Starks demanded awareness.
05:13 He finished his year at OK Junior College
05:16 with nice stats and led his team
05:19 to the state championship game.
05:20 Despite having just one year of eligibility left,
05:24 Starks was fielding D1 offers.
05:27 He committed to Oklahoma State,
05:29 where he played with an intensity and tenacity
05:31 of someone who knew they could hold their own
05:33 against Carl Malone and Dennis Rodman,
05:36 yet despite that knowledge,
05:38 signed up for a business degree
05:39 from a school without a basketball team.
05:41 OSU coach Leonard Hamilton described it this way.
05:45 "Starks has more than ability.
05:47 "He will stand up and be counted."
05:49 Starks started all but two games,
05:52 shot 50% from the field,
05:54 and perhaps most importantly,
05:56 played well every time OSU faced Kansas,
05:59 the team Larry Brown coached.
06:01 After the '88 season,
06:03 Brown was called up to coach the Spurs,
06:05 and he invited Starks to San Antonio's summer league camp,
06:09 essentially a tryout for the NBA.
06:11 After that, Larry Brown wanted Starks,
06:14 but wasn't ready to guarantee any money.
06:16 So Starks decided instead
06:18 to try his luck on the free agent market.
06:21 He ended up with a minimum contract on the Warriors
06:24 under coach Don Nelson,
06:25 but we can't get too down here.
06:28 He made the NBA.
06:30 Two years ago, he was working at Safeway.
06:33 If this were a movie,
06:33 we'd say it was too unrealistic.
06:35 This is an all-time great inspirational story,
06:38 especially if we ended right here.
06:41 Because while Nelson gave him a roster spot
06:43 and made the NBA dream a reality,
06:46 Nelson soon came to the conclusion
06:48 that John Starks was not NBA material.
06:52 Nelson barely played Starks.
06:55 And it wasn't exactly a skill level thing.
06:57 In fact, Starks felt his benching
06:59 had nothing to do with his skill.
07:01 At practice, he was doing well, killing even.
07:04 Now, it's possible practice performance
07:07 doesn't translate to game performance,
07:09 but also, Starks had conflicts with the coach.
07:13 Nelson didn't appreciate that Starks stood up to be counted.
07:17 Don't ask for more playing time.
07:18 Don't ask for a better contract.
07:20 To truly understand the player-coach relationship at play,
07:24 let's look at an example exchange.
07:27 During a shoot-around, Starks shot from out of bounds.
07:30 Nelson told him not to, in his own words.
07:34 And Starks used his own words to reply.
07:37 Nelson cut him after the season,
07:40 thus declaring John Starks wasn't NBA caliber.
07:43 He said Starks was too wild in his play
07:45 and presumably his attitude as well.
07:48 He also threw some low blows
07:50 in his assessment of John's skillset.
07:52 The guard then headed to the CBA
07:55 where he made the All-Star game
07:57 that was packed with NBA scouts.
07:59 The Pistons were impressed enough
08:01 to offer him a 10-day contract.
08:04 But before they could,
08:05 John Starks got a little too passionate and bumped a ref.
08:09 Kinda hard.
08:12 He was suspended for the last 10 games of the season.
08:16 The Pistons were no longer interested.
08:17 But you know who was too impressed at the All-Star game
08:22 to mind Starks' ref-bumping spirit?
08:24 The Knicks.
08:26 Knicks GM Al Bianchi saw that Starks desire,
08:31 that drive that only somebody who killed at NBA practices
08:34 but got bumped down to the CBA anyway could have.
08:37 Unfortunately, wanting it isn't always enough.
08:42 The Knicks soon decided to cut Starks.
08:44 They agreed with Nelson.
08:46 He wasn't NBA material.
08:47 At the last practice before cuts,
08:50 Starks was aware he was on the bubble
08:52 and had to do something big.
08:54 So during a scrimmage, he went to dunk on Patrick Ewing.
08:57 Twice in his life, big dunks had gotten him noticed.
09:01 I understand his thinking.
09:03 But Patrick Ewing was a seven-foot tall,
09:06 240-pound NBA All-Star.
09:10 In other words, a sort of wall
09:11 that could push back if you tried to dunk over it.
09:15 Starks did not score, did not change minds,
09:18 but instead sprained his knee.
09:20 And this is where the expression
09:22 blessing in disguise comes from, I think.
09:25 Because according to the NBA rule book,
09:27 a team could not cut an injured player.
09:30 John Starks' sprained knee got him
09:32 a one-year minimum contract with the Knicks.
09:35 Not exactly the dream, but technically he was in the NBA.
09:40 That counted.
09:41 And it kept the dream alive.
09:43 Barely, it was on its deathbed, but still breathing.
09:47 When Reserve Guard Trent Tucker
09:50 got hurt in early December, Starks was activated.
09:54 In the five games Tucker was out, Starks wasn't so bad.
09:58 In fact, when Tucker got healthy,
10:00 John still played ahead of him.
10:02 The press speculated this was because
10:04 Tucker was getting older
10:06 and Starks had potential to have potential.
10:10 They also speculated it was a poor decision.
10:13 But the Knicks had gotten a new coach in early December
10:16 and he liked Starks, a lot.
10:20 Why?
10:21 That intensity, that hustle,
10:23 that something-to-prove attitude
10:25 of a guy who wasn't supposed to be there.
10:27 Getting quality playing time
10:29 helped Starks find a little groove.
10:32 And at this point, we can look to the press
10:34 to see the widely, or at least widely throughout New York,
10:37 held perception of John Starks.
10:40 An effort guy, a capable NBA backup guard,
10:44 a nice bench contributor.
10:46 And the new Knicks coach for '92, Pat Riley,
10:48 agreed with the press.
10:50 Starks was a reserve, a spark off the bench.
10:52 Now we know Starks eventually changed Riley's mind, but how?
10:57 That unique combo of hustle and desire,
11:00 the fire in his belly that only a former Safeway worker
11:03 who dunked over a high jump state champion could have,
11:06 that's what changed Riley's mind.
11:09 Now Riley could see Starks's flaws.
11:12 Playing with a defiant combative competitiveness
11:14 leads to turnovers and mistakes and too much trash talk,
11:18 and hopefully not any more ref shoving.
11:20 But instead of concluding that meant
11:22 Starks couldn't survive in the league,
11:24 Riley said, "What if he just needs more experience?"
11:28 He upped Starks's minutes significantly
11:30 and gave the streaky shooter free reign to chuck him up.
11:33 Probably not how he phrased it, though.
11:36 The coach later said Starks is the player
11:38 who most reminded him of himself,
11:40 and perhaps that gave Riley some insight
11:42 into how to get the most out of the guard.
11:45 Riley could see Starks's future before anyone.
11:48 In mid-December, the coach made what was described
11:50 as a surprising announcement.
11:52 He considered Starks to be the top shooting guard
11:55 in the division.
11:56 Riley's words seemed a little less surprising
11:58 by the end of the '92 season.
12:00 John Starks was good.
12:02 The following year, Starks began to morph
12:05 into the player we know him as today,
12:07 and in the playoffs, he solidified himself as a star,
12:11 erasing any unsavory memories, redacting his resume.
12:15 Against the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals,
12:18 game one, fourth quarter,
12:20 Starks outplayed Michael Jordan.
12:22 Jordan said of Starks what a lot of people
12:24 must have been thinking.
12:26 "I know he's here now."
12:27 And that wasn't even the game Starks dunked on him.
12:31 That happened in game two.
12:32 Now we've come to the part of the resume
12:35 we already knew and understood.
12:37 We're celebrating him right now, don't think about it.
12:40 The fact that John Starks became this guy was so unlikely.
12:45 What if Ken Trickey didn't take pity on him
12:47 and throw him a jersey?
12:49 What if Brown didn't invite him to Summer League?
12:51 What if he hadn't attempted to dunk on Ewing?
12:54 So many times, Starks was in the right place
12:57 at the right time, with the right people around.
12:59 But there were also plenty of instances
13:03 where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,
13:06 with the wrong people around.
13:08 So even though I've just told you a story,
13:12 I don't really get how John Starks did it.
13:16 How'd he persevere?
13:17 I guess John Starks was always this guy.
13:22 It just took a long time for him to get a chance to show us.
13:25 (upbeat music)
13:27 (upbeat music)
13:30 (electronic music)
13:33 [MUSIC]