STARKS REMINDER
Knicks' run stirs memories for NY legend
When he played for the Knicks, John Starks was known for his endless energy. But these playoffs have made him dog tired.
“As a player you know that you have some type of control over the game, and as a fan, you don’t,” the retired guard said with the Knicks enjoying a 2-1 series lead in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“It’s very, very exhausting. I feel what fans go through . . . because it’s a do-or-die situation. You’re just hanging on every bucket, every loose ball, every steal, every foul. I have to get in a lot of cardio just to keep up with what’s going on.”
Fans on X joked that with the injuries the team is facing, Starks, 58, should suit up. The Knicks play the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 Sunday.
“Yeah, I got a few of those . . . You get that feeling like you do want to jump out there because obviously I got a front row seat to everything and, you know, you start sweating because you’ve been in those moments,” said Starks, a former All Star who now works as the Knicks’ alumni and fan development adviser.
Energetic fan fave
Starks, whose hard-nosed style made him a fan favorite during his 1990-98 tenure at Madison Square Garden, sees his team in this season’s squad.
“Oh yeah, that’s the way we played. You feel the same type of energy that these guys play with. Because we wasn’t an explosive, offensive team,” he said.
The Garden atmosphere is also reminiscent of his glory days.
“It brings us all the way back to when we was rolling during the ’90s and how the arena was electric throughout every game,” he said. “There’s no other place like this in the NBA. When that crowd gets going, it feels like the whole arena just shakes. I was just asking some guys, ‘Could you all feel it through the TV?’ And they said, ‘Oh, no question.’ ”
The team’s star-studded alumni have been adding to the electricity at the World’s Most Famous Arena, and current Knicks star Jalen Brunson gave them all a shout-out in a news conference this week.
“It’s not just one game, they’ve been to a lot of games. They’re not just sitting there drinking and having some popcorn. They’re up yelling,” he said.
Starks thinks the former players can be an important sixth man: “Having that extra support from guys like myself and Larry Johnson and [Latrell] Sprewell and [Marcus] Camby. And you know, Stephon [Marbury], Melo [Carmelo Anthony], Tim Thomas, Bernard King, Amar’e [Stoudemire] — I could just go on and on.
“And everybody is truly, truly into it and behind these guys, the way they play.”
The Oklahoma native, who now lives in Stamford, Conn., even traveled to Philadelphia during the first round — and said the 76ers’ Joel Embiid “probably” should have been kicked out of Game 3, when he tried to trip Mitchell Robinson.