Although he was passed over in the draft, Starks signed with the
Golden State Warriors in September 1988 as a free agent. He was cut a year later, but worked his way back into the NBA after stints in the
Continental Basketball Association (
Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets, 1989?90) and
World Basketball League (
Memphis Rockers, 1990?91).
[3] In 1990, he 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. He eventually became the starting shooting guard, becoming a key player on the team and playing 8 seasons in New York from 1990?98. Starks was a posterchild 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 was at the center of one of the most famous plays in Knicks history, which has now become known simply as "The Dunk". In Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the
Chicago Bulls, Starks was in the right corner of the court being closely guarded by
B.J. Armstrong. Ewing came to set a screen for Starks, who faked to the left like he was going to use the pick, and then drove along the baseline and dunked over
Horace Grant with his left hand.
[8][9]
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 3, Starks was fouled by Rockets center
Hakeem Olajuwon while attempting a 3. At the time, however, the NBA only allowed 2 free throws during a foul on a 3-pointer. Starks made both, but Houston won 93?89 (the league would change the rule to allow 3 free throws the next season). Starks and the Knicks then watched
[10] 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
[10] 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 3-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 0-for-10 in the fourth quarter. The Rockets went on to win the game and the championship, denying New York from having both NBA and NHL championships in the same year.
In 1995, Knicks coach
Pat Riley left the Knicks for the
Miami Heat after a dispute with then-General Manager
Dave Checketts. The Knicks later hired Don Nelson, resurrecting the tensions from Starks' first year with Golden State. But Nelson was fired in the middle of his first season, and replaced with Assistant Coach
Jeff Van Gundy. With the addition of
Allan Houston in 1996, Starks became a mentor as Houston took his spot in the starting lineup. Starks continued to be a steady contributor off the bench that season, and in 1997 he received the
NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award. Two years later, Starks was traded back to the Warriors, along with
Chris Mills and
Terry Cummings, for
Latrell Sprewell.
