Knicks #3 – John Starks
No surprise here, the best player to wear #3 for the Knicks is John Starks; a true underdog story. While not being recruited coming out of high school, Starks played at 4 different colleges in 4 years due to legal issues. After college, Starks went undrafted but did make the Warriors team in the 1988-89 season. He didn’t make the team his 2nd season, having to go to the CBA.
In his 3rd season, he only made the team for the 1990-91 campaign because he hurt his knee trying to dunk over Patrick Ewing in practice. The team wasn’t allowed to release him until his knee healed, fortunately for Starks, his knee didn’t heal until December after the Knicks were forced to guarantee his contract for the season. When he returned he caught the attention of then-coach John MacLeod because of his athletic ability and energy.
The following season, 1991-92, Pat Riley became the head coach of the Knicks and he fell in love with Starks. The players used to refer to Starks as Riley’s son. Starks’s 2nd season with the Knicks was the launching point of his career and it coincided with the start of the last great run in Knicks’ history. Starks averaged 14.1 ppg in his 8 seasons with the Knicks.
Starks’ career with the Knicks had its ups and downs as he was a notoriously streaky shooter and an overly emotional player. He did have two of the worst shooting games in Finals history, his worst was in Game 7 versus the Houston Rockets when he went 2-18 and 0-11 on 3-pointers. But overall his career was a success and the Knicks would not have done as well if Starks wasn’t there to help Ewing.
He was the starting shooting guard on the Knicks’ only 60 win season, 1992-93. He made the all-star team in the 1993-94 season, it was also the first time the Knicks returned to the Finals in 21 seasons. Starks also made the 2nd all-defensive team in the 1992-93 season and was 6th man of the year in the 1996-97 season. Of course, we couldn’t forget about “The Dunk” over Michael Jordan and Horace Grant in the 1993 playoffs.
Even when Starks was traded, he helped the Knicks. New York sent him to Golden State in 1999 as the main piece in the Latrell Sprewell trade.
Currently, Nerlens Noel wears #3 for the Knicks and has done a good job bringing back the Knicks’ defensive identity. The Knicks are above .500 and are on pace to make the playoffs for the first time in 8 seasons. Hopefully, in the future, we will be talking about Noel as one of the better players to wear #3 for the Knicks.