Ask most New York Knicks fans about the 1994 NBA Finals, and two thoughts immediately come to mind.
One is the time when NBC split the television screen for millions of Knicks fans, to simultaneously broadcast Game 5 of that series against the Houston Rockets, alongside an infamous white Ford Bronco carrying O.J. Simpson as he tried to elude California police.
The other is what occurred five days later, during the seventh and deciding game of the Finals, when the Rockets completed their comeback from a 3-2 series deficit to win their first NBA title.
What Knicks Nation unfortunately remembers most about that game can be captured with a single word and two numbers: 2-for-18.
In a contest that Houston narrowly won by holding off New York, 90-84, many Knicks fans still blame the loss on guard John Starks missing 16 of 18 shots from the field, including all 11 of his 3-point attempts, while his teammates shot a solid 48.3 percent (29-for-60) that night.
This Sunday, June 22, marks exactly two decades since that excruciating moment which John Starks would love to have back.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to ask Starks, who currently works for the Knicks as an Alumni Relations and Fan Development Advisor, about the ’94 Finals, over dinner at a Philadelphia restaurant before we took in a Knicks-76ers game together with a few Madison Square Garden officials and a couple of Knicks fans.
I tried to ease the anguish of what happened in Houston by letting Starks know that not only was he my favorite Knick in those days, but by reminding him that New York never would never have reached the Finals without him.
"“I appreciate that,” he told me. “Thank you.”"
Although Knicks fans have maintained their bitter memories of Starks’ awful Game 7 shooting performance, they also rightfully look at the larger picture of his surprisingly good eight years he spent with New York and revere him as a fan favorite at the Garden these days.
Starks, the Knicks’ all-time leader in 3-point field goals, with 982 made 3s, was as streaky as they come. True to his usual form, the thing that’s forgotten about Game 7 is how well he played in the previous game and how close he came to carrying the Knicks to a third championship for the franchise, one that even now, continues to escape New York since 1973.
Game 6, as Knicks fans know all too well, ended in cruel fashion, with Hakeem Olajuwon stepping out to block a 3-point attempt by Starks from the left wing, on the final play of the game.
Rockets 86, Knicks 84.
And on to Game 7, and 2-for-18.
Who knows how things might have turned out had Starks made that final shot of Game 6 gone in? Maybe instead of having the distinction to this day of being the only head coach to lose an NBA Finals Game 7 with two different teams (his Los Angeles Lakers also lost to the Boston Celtics in 1984) Pat Riley would have remained in New York to guide the Knicks to more titles instead of leaving after the following year to help the Miami Heat win multiple championships. And then Knicks fans might never have known such suffering as the Isiah Thomas era and countless other disappointments that followed.
All of that, perhaps, on one shot.
“It was going in,” Starks told me that time in Philly. “He just made a great play,” Starks added of Olajuwon, who recovered well after Starks got by him and had a good look.
What Starks didn’t mention was that Olajuwon’s block might not have been a block at all (something which is never discussed).
It’s difficult to tell for sure, via a grainy replay from so long ago, whether Olajuwon actually got a piece of the ball, though it seems he did. What appears to be more conclusive is that Olajuwon at least made contact with Starks’ hands on the follow through (although Starks didn’t tell me or anyone else he was fouled and he’s not shown in the replay as complaining to an official about a foul call).
A shooters hand is considered part of the ball in that case, but only while the two are still in contact with each other. On that fateful last play of Game 6, Olajuwon clearly hit Starks’ hands after the ball was already released.
You can judge for yourself here:
While it wasn’t until the following season that the NBA began awarding three free throws for fouls occurring on 3-point attempts, a foul on Olajuwon on that play would have been his sixth of the game. Thus, if the play at the end of Game 6 should have warranted a foul on Olajuwon, two made free throws by Starks would have sent the game to overtime with Houston’s best player forced to watch from the bench.
Regardless of whether or not the right call was made at that pivotal moment, Starks is rarely appreciated for all he did throughout that particular season, one in which Starks averaged career highs in scoring (19 points), assists (5.9), steals (1.6) and minutes played (34.9), while helping the Knicks to a division title and 57 wins (a total which New York still hasn’t surpassed since that time).
And his Game 7 performance unfairly overshadows the way he carried the Knicks to the brink of a title in Game 6 while team leader Patrick Ewing went just 6-for-20 and was outscored by Olajuwon, 30-17.
As bad as he was in Game 7, Starks scored a team-high 27 points (including 16 in the fourth quarter) in Game 6, on 9-of-18 shooting, while making a game-high five 3-pointers on nine attempts. He also made four of five free throws, handed out eight assists while committing just two turnovers and recorded a pair of steals.
But much of that, perhaps all of it, is forgotten by most Knicks fans who watched that game.
Sadly for Starks and the Knicks, one blocked shot changed it all. Instead of Starks living in Knicks lore forever, through what would have been an iconic moment replayed again and again for the past 20 years and beyond — that of Starks winning New York’s third title on a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer — the play was a mere preamble to a haunting memory that Starks can’t shake.
However, now that two decades have passed, maybe its finally time for all Knicks fans to let that go and simply be thankful that Starks — who went from bagging groceries at a Safeway in 1986, to an undrafted free agent two years later, to New York two years after that, following stops in the CBA and WBL — overachieved enough to help take their team within a single shot of the only realistic chance (the San Antonio Spurs were simply too good in the 1999 NBA Finals) the Knicks had at winning an NBA championship since their last one, 41 years ago.
Still, if I haven’t convinced you yet, listen to Riley, who said it best after he took some heat (not pun intended, in relation to Riley’s current team in Miami) for sticking with Starks through his struggles in Game 7 of the ’94 Finals.
"“All the critics and the naysayers that looked hard at that and criticized the fact that John was still in the game, don’t and did not, take into account that we would have never gotten to Game 7 if it wasn’t for John,” he said. “In Games 4 and 5, he had double-digit fourth quarter performances. In Game 5, without him getting 11 points in the fourth quarter, we wouldn’t have won. In Game 6, he had 16 points in the fourth quarter. He was really, really playing well in fourth quarters, making big shots and making big plays.”"
Now if only Knicks fans could focus on that, rather than on 2-for-18, especially 20 years later.