Knicks legend John Starks is no stranger to the grind. Well before he was an undrafted rookie trying to make his way in the NBA, Starks was an unrecruited high school prospect with just a single season of organized basketball under his belt trying to figure out how he was going to pay his way through college.
Flash forward a few years, and not only had Starks carved out his niche in the NBA, he would go on to help define a legendary era of Knicks basketball in the 90s, one that was a reflection of the type of toughness and resilience that raised him from obscurity and took him all the way to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.
Still, it was those early struggles before NBA stardom that influenced Starks the most and have defined his post-basketball career. Since retiring in 2002, he has devoted his time and money to helping young students in financial need reach their educational goals through the John Starks Foundation, which provides grants and scholarships in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Oklahoma based on need and academic achievement.
We caught up with Starks recently to talk about his foundation, the NBA Playoffs, and our shared admiration of his spiritual successor, Luguentz Dort.
Let’s talk about the John Starks Foundation. You guys do such amazing things with that. Can you tell us a little about the events you have coming up?
Yeah, we have our 25th annual John Starks Foundation Golf Tournament at Tamarack [Country Club in Greenwich, CT]. Right now, we have online auction items that the public can bid on and you can go to info at JohnStarks.org to find out more information about the auction items as well as the golf tournament itself. But we’ve been doing this since 1994. It’s been great to be able to provide scholarship money for graduating seniors in the tri-state area. We’ve been dealing with some incredible young people that we try to give the opportunity to go out and start their future. I should also mention that our sponsors have been terrific for the last 25, 26 years now. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic year our sponsors have been incredible by sticking beside us and truly holding up to their commitment to help these young people.
What inspired you to start this foundation?
The inspiration behind it is because I had to do the same thing coming out of high school. I wasn’t recruited or offered a scholarship. I only played one year of high school basketball, my junior year. So I wasn’t offered any scholarships. So in order for me to go to college, I had to basically do exactly what a lot of these young folks do — apply for scholarship money and find ways to be able to pay for college. And so when I got a position playing for the Knicks and my agent asked me “What do you want to do in order to give back?” I thought about my situation coming out of high school. “You know, I want to start a foundation to raise money for graduating teens in the tri-state area as well as back in South Oklahoma where I’m from to provide scholarship money for that.”
Obviously, you have a lot going on with the foundation and the upcoming events. Have you had any time to watch the playoffs? What’s been the most exciting part for you?
I’ve been watching it all. The play has been terrific. You know what I mean? The games have been to terrific, even though the fans are not there. The intensity is still there. You can still feel the passion, and the quality of play has been very good. Not having the fans there probably helped some players that normally, on a court, probably would be nervous, wouldn’t play well. But these guys are locked in. The shooting has been terrific. The coaching has been terrific. It has been a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see a series like Boston and Toronto. Everybody was counting Toronto out. The series was tied going to a game seven. The Lakers series should be a good one. And Denver and the Clippers series. It has been fun to watch.
I’m glad you mentioned that because I wanted to ask you, just from a player’s perspective, how do you think it changes your mindset when you’re in an open gym like that? You hear a lot of guys talk about it being a shooter’s gym. Would that have been different for you as a player?
Well, you said it right. It does turn into a shooter’s gym. You don’t have the crowd, the distraction back there. It’s just like going into a regular gym. And the rim seems so much closer to you. That’s why you see a lot of guys shooting the ball very well. It’s dark, dark behind it. So it’s a lot of fun. You know what I mean? I could see that these guys probably had a lot of time to work on their games and work on their jump shot. It’s been good quality. And obviously they getting a lot of rest. And that’s how you see the energy level so high.
Watching the OKC series, I was thinking about Lu Dort and how much he reminded me of you. I don’t know if you had much of a chance to watch him…
Yeah, I’ve seen him. I watched him play. He’s a player that came out of nowhere. I think he went to Arizona State, I believe. And he just made a name for himself during the playoffs. That’s where you can make your name and get noticed and come up big. And the way he played and the way he defended James Harden, it was just amazing to see a young player like that.
He went out there and played with no fear. I like to see these guys get a chance to show their stuff in big moments. I think that’s probably hurt a lot of guys in college, because they never got a chance to play during the tournament. So a lot of them go unnoticed. But this kid Dort, he made his name during the playoff.
I thought it was also really telling that he was able to have a rough game there, I guess a rough two games, and then completely bounced back from that. It’s rare for young players to be able to withstand that kind of pressure and then recover from it.
Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. And like I say, in the bubble, you don’t really have the fans there to keep that type of play going. So you get a chance to gather yourself mentally and get refocused. And he definitely refocused and played very well.
You were the first player to make 200 threes in a season. And you shot them at a pretty high clip, which was somewhat revolutionary for the time. What do you think about the way three-point shooting has changed the game today?
It’s amazing because the way these guys shoot the ball without any fear of getting pulled out the game from coming down the court one on five and then jack up a three. I could never, and players back then could never do that. You’d be on that bench so quick. And like you say, it’s very accepted, acceptable, I should say, launching them like that. And Houston probably launches them more than any other team. I’m curious to see what their stats will be at the end of the season as far as how many threes they took. But when you don’t have to worry about that type of thing, it frees your mind up. So you’re going to become a better shooter.
With so much social unrest around the country, the players really banded together to make a statement and stage a boycott a couple of weeks ago to try to make something happen. What did you think about the way they handled that situation?
I thought they did a good job of handling it. They truly stepped up at a point in time when you have to say enough is enough. And they wanted to bring attention to the situation that’s going on out here in society. And I thought they handled it very well. To their credit, along with the NBA, they sat down to talk and they came back together. And kept things going. And the most beautiful thing is that all sports responded to that. And so they ain’t just wandering alone by themselves. Every sport stepped up, and that mattered. And that’s good to see. That’s what it’s going to take — a collective effort to get change.
The NBA has really taken on a leadership role in so many way, and you see how other sports leagues and just the general public follow their lead on a lot of things. What do you think about how that has evolved over the years?
That’s been good. You have guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade when he was playing, Chris Paul, Carmelo. They led the charge on that. Remember at the ESPY awards where they all stood together? The young players now feel like that’s their role in society. Not just to be a basketball player, but when things are not right you should be able to speak up and try to make a change for the better. That’s going to make this great country a lot better. So it’s great that the NBA has taken that role, and it’s great that other sports and other athletes are following.
The Last Dance was such a huge cultural phenomenon this year. And you and the Knicks were such a big part of that era. You had so many intense battles with Michael and the Bulls. That all time great dunk, just going back and I hadn’t thought about those days in a while. What was it like for you to relive some of those moments or go down memory lane?
It was fun. You know what I mean? I really, truly enjoyed The Last Dance. I thought it was well put together. It’s great to see Michael sit there and really go over everything that happened throughout his career, basically, and throughout that great Bulls run. And it was great to see that they paid homage to the 90s. That was fun years during that time to be playing basketball because the way the game was played, and the physicality of it is what made it so fun. And the intensity level was so high. It was great to see that they did a good job of showing that.
There have been a lot of changes going on with the Knicks. What are you most excited about for the future of the franchise?
Well, I love where we at as far as our direction. You got incredible people in charge that know basketball. And I think our young players are definitely growing. Obviously, it’s going to be a big year, especially in the draft, as well as the free agent market. And so we’re excited. And I think we’re headed in the right direction now. The league is so much younger now.
So you really have to go through your draft, making sure that you pick the right player that’s going to fit the style of play that you’re going to play. You know [Tom] Thibodeau that was a great hire. And so our scouting department is top notch. We’ve been through rough times as we all know. But we’re moving in the right direction. So that’s what I’m excited about.
