I've seen some players come and go who had more talent, but they didn't play as hard, they didn't work as hard and they didn't care as much as John does.

- Dave Checketts

College

John Starks played for 4 schools in his 4 year college/university career. He spent a year in each of: Northern Oklahoma, Rogers State, Oklahoma JC, and Oklahoma State. At OSU, he wore #32.

CBA

John Starks, as a member of the Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets, participated in 1989-90 CBA All-Star Game. He also took 1st Place in the Slam Dunk Competition. He was suspended the last few games of the season for bumping an official. The Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets finished 25-31, missing the playoffs. On June 7/97 the Rockford Lightning took John Starks in the Omaha Racers dispersal draft.

WBL

The Memphis Rockers finished 27-19, beating Illinois in the First Round 2-1, and losing to Youngstown 2-1 in the Semifinals.

NBA

John Starks was not drafted by an NBA franchise. He was signed as a free agent by the Golden State Warriors (wearing #30) on 9/29/88.

Starks was signed as a free agent by the New York Knicks (wearing #3) on 10/1/90. He took 4th Place in the Slam Dunk Competition with 87.9 points, placing 4th out of 8 in the 1st Round with 42 points, and 4th out of 4 with 43 points. In 92-93, he was voted to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team. In 1994, he won an ESPY award (Viewer's Choice) for "The Dunk". Starks finished in 1st Place in voting for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 96-97, taking 84 out of 115 media votes. In 97-98, he took 4th Place in the same category, taking 3 out of 116 votes. On 3/22/97, New York suspended Starks for one game (Milwaukee) for arguments between Starks and coach Jeff Van Gundy. On 5/16/97 the league suspended Starks for 1 game (game 7) vs. Miami for his part in a playoff brawl in game 5. He was also fined $2500 for the fight as well as $5000 for making an obscene gesture. Starks was traded by the Knicks with Chris Mills and Terry Cummings to the Warriors (wearing #9) for Latrell Sprewell on 1/21/99.

Starks was traded by the Warriors with a future first-round draft choice to the Chicago Bulls (wearing #9) in three-way deal in which the Bulls sent Toni Kukoc to the Philadelphia 76ers and the 76ers sent Larry Hughes and Billy Owens to the Warriors and Bruce Bowen to the Bulls on 2/16/00.

Starks was waived by the Bulls on 3/21/00 (well, actually, he sued the league and was allowed to leave the Bulls without being paid).

Starks signed as a free agent by the Utah Jazz (wearing #9) on 8/2/00. On 12/28/00, he was suspended for 1 game for violating team policies, and again on 1/4/01 for 2 games for not boarding the team bus after a loss in Los Angeles. John Starks retired at the end of the 01-02 season.

Records