Getty John Starks, Knicks legend
Back in 1994, when the Knicks were on their way to the third NBA Finals appearance in the franchise’s history, the team found itself in a very difficult situation. After winning the first two games of the conference finals against Indiana, the Knicks lost three straight, looking offensively inept as they scored just 77 points per game. Worse, in Game 5, Reggie Miller scored 16 fourth-quarter points to erase the Knicks’ 12-point fourth-quarter lead, the game in which Miller famously taunted Spike Lee with a choking sign throughout.
But the Knicks did rally to win the final two games. Now, with the Knicks looking again offensively inept 27 years later against the Hawks, there is some reason to keep the faith that a bounce-back is coming. After all, it happened in a much more dire situation in 1994, and one of the top stars of that team—John Starks—tells Heavy.com that he sees a direct connection between his Knicks and this team.
For Starks, that starts with coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I see the similarities in this team with the teams of the 1990s,” Starks said. “Obviously, I knew it was going to be like that when Thibs got hired because he is a defensive-minded coach.”
John Starks on Today’s Knicks: ‘Thibs Brought Us Back to Our Roots’
Thibodeau is the very direct line going from the Knicks of today straight back through what has mostly been a mess in the past two decades, to the doorstep of the franchise’s second heyday in the 1990s. Thibodeau came up as an assistant coach to former Rockets and Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who came himself from the school of Pat Riley. It was Riley who established the swinging-elbow Knicks bunch of 30 years ago.
Thibodeau brought that mindset, though in more modern form, to this version of the Knicks. Before hiring Thibodeau, the Knicks were 23rd in defensive efficiency. They were 26th the previous year and 22nd the year before that. In fact, New York had not had a Top 10 defense since 2012 and had only cracked the Top 20 twice in eight seasons.
They were fourth in defense this year, without making a major change in personnel. Said Starks:
I think, for years, defense, that’s what this team has been missing. That identity that truly identifies with New York Knicks basketball. Defense first. Teams in the 70s had it. Teams in the 80s had it. That’s what we had in the 90s. I think that identity has been lost because everybody gets caught up in this whirlwind of the offense, you know what I mean? The thinking is offense is going to do it for you, but you look at the best teams, they are defensive teams with the offense. But we were just an offensive minded team for so many years, but now Thibs brought us back to our roots. He brought us home. Now you see the success, what it is all about.
Julius Randle’s Struggles Hurting Knicks Offense
The problem for the Knicks now, though, is that the offense is letting them down against Atlanta, especially star big man Julius Randle. After a stellar regular season in which he won the Most Improved Player award, Randle has flopped in three postseason games, the first three playoffs games of his career.
Randle is shooting an atrocious 24.1% from the field in the series, averaging 14.7 points. He was 2-for-15 in Game 3, a loss in Atlanta on Friday.
Starks, who just released a documentary about his life, called “Keep Shooting,” can relate—he famously shot 2-for-18 in a Game 7 loss to the Rockets in the 1994 NBA Finals. But even with that disappointment, it is the toughness and grinding style that stands out about him and those teams.
Julius Randle shot 2-15 (13%) from the field.
With a minimum of 15 FGA, that’s the 2nd-worst field goal percentage by a Knicks player in a playoff game in the shot-clock era (since 1954-55).
John Starks shot 11% (2-18) in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals at the Rockets.
“We really embodied the New York mentality, the grit, the fight to scratch out anything you can possibly scratch out to be successful,” Starks said. “That’s the way we was. Look at those teams back in the 90s, the players we had on that team, they were all blue-collar workers on that team. I think that’s what Knicks fans in general remember the 1990s team are about, heart and soul, never give up, fight to the end.”
This team has some of those same characteristics. But with a crucial Game 4 approaching on the road, the time for the Knicks to show that is now.