Ian Begley: Fan in a John Starks jersey hit a half-court shot to win a KIA car at MSG tonight. He celebrated by shoulder-bumping RJ Barrett and hugging Julius Randle.
John Starks Rumors
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John Starks
Position: -
Born: 08/10/65
Height: 6-5 / 1.96
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Earnings: $24,958,000 ($46,014,928*)
Born: 08/10/65
Height: 6-5 / 1.96
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Earnings: $24,958,000 ($46,014,928*)
Mike Vorkunov: Nuggets coach Mike Malone invokes the ’90s Knicks for his gameplan today. “I go back to my father with the New York Knicks and John Starks, man. ‘Make them feel you, make them feel you.’ and I felt we did that tonight.” Brendan Malone, Mike’s dad, was a Knicks assistant coach.
Oakley already sensed Dolan wasn’t fond of him. The former power forward had been publicly critical of the struggling Knicks, who had descended into misery under the owner. Oakley felt he never received the same ‘Once a Knick, Always a Knick’ treatment of some of his former teammates, including team employees John Starks and Allan Houston. “Me, Anthony Mason, and Patrick Ewing were always on the outside — they never offered us anything (job-wise) worth taking,” Oakley wrote. “I don’t know, maybe we didn’t kiss ass like some other guys did.”
Can you imagine yourself playing in today’s NBA? John Starks: It’s great that you bring that question up. Yeah, I definitely could imagine myself doing very well in this league. Back then, the three-point line was more like a knockout punch so to speak. It really wasn’t that emphasized on the game like it is now. Because of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, especially for Steph, it has become more of a weapon within today’s game, because everybody’s shooting from point guards to centers. I know that I would have done very well in today’s game because coaches don’t frown on you for shooting the three on a one-on-five fast break. In my days, if I did something like that, with Pat Riley as my coach, he probably would have put me out of the game [laughs]. It’s great to see how the game has evolved.
John Starks: We had big guys in the low post game at that time, every team had seven-footers and shot blockers at the rim. You just don’t have that nowadays so it is easier to get in the lane and getting layups, it’s easier to come out of pick and rolls. The game has evolved into a more offensive style. Score as many points as you can, see if the other teams can keep up.
You returned to Summit arena in Houston. What did you learn from the experience of going there after all these years? John Starks: Whenever you go back to the scene of the crime, you just figure that ‘Hey, you have moved on past it.’ When I got there just kind of brought back a lot of memories of what happened within that arena. The beautiful thing about it is that it was transformed into a church by the great Joel Osteen, and to be able to have him and be a part of the documentary was incredible. Being a pastor, he always has a great take on experiences like that and things that you have to do in order to get past it. And so it was really cathartic for me to just kind of be in his presence and listen to him talk about it. It really helped me deal with that moment right then and there. It was nice to be able to get back in that arena and just kind of relive those moments.
You played 14 games against Kobe Bryant. What did you think of him, back in those early years of his career? John Starks: He came into this league with a lot of confidence. That surprised me the most, being 18 years old and he felt like he belonged right away. Obviously, he looked up to Michael and patterned his whole mentality and game after Jordan, which has been well documented. But I was impressed with his intelligence out there in the court being such a young player. You could tell he was a student of the game, knew the history of the game. And I think that’s what made him so special as a player, he went out there and say ‘You know what? I want to compare myself to the greats.’ So he looked at obviously the best of the game at that time, Michael Jordan, and he went there every single day trying to duplicate MJ. More than anybody he was the one who came as close to MJ in my book to surpass him but quite couldn’t get there because Michael is a different animal. But I respected that in Kobe.
