Forty years ago, John Starks was kicked out of college for possessing marijuana.
"It wasn't a typical journey like most guys who have a successful career in the NBA," the fomer Knick All-Star explains on the Gimme The Hot Sauce podcast, as reported by Basketball Network. "My path was a little different. I didn't play my senior year [at Central High School in Tulsa, OK]. Well, I should say I played a couple of games in my senior year before me and the coach had a little disagreement and I ended up quitting the team. Then, I started playing street basketball. After I graduated from high school, I decided to go to Rogers State College. But I got into trouble up there and had to leave that school. Then, I went to Northern Oklahoma Junior College and I was actually playing and I can remember hitting the game-winning shot when I was there and then going back and partying afterward and getting caught with some marijuana [in his dorm room]. I ended up getting kicked out of school.
"So I had to go back home and face my mother. I can remember walking in the house and the first thing my mother said was, 'You got to get a job.' She didn't argue at me, she didn't say, 'What you doing?' and this and that. That's when I started working at Safeway and making $3.35 an hour. While I was there, a jack came down on my foot. I thought I had broke a bone in my foot. One of the older guys there said, 'This is not for you.' He said, 'You need to get back in school.' And, sure enough, I decided to go back and enroll in [Oklahoma] Junior College. I joined their intramural league just to stay in shape... I ended up there and had a successful season. I became a junior college All-American."
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Starks transferred to Oklahoma State in 1987.
"I always wanted to play in the Big 8," he continues. "I ended up having a good year. I was Big 8 freshman of the year even though I was 22!"
But not one team drafted him in 1988.
"I ended up signing with Golden State because they offered me a guarantee of $50,000. I played there for a year... I was about ready to sign with Indiana, but I turned my ankle... That's how I ended up in the CBA for a year. And I played in the World Basktball League that summer in Memphis."
The Knicks signed Starks in 1990 as a shooting guard on a team that included Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and Mark Jackson. He averaged only 7 ppg that season. But by the 1993-1994 season, Starks was up to 19 ppg, helping lead the Knicks to the NBA finals, which they lost to Houston in a seven-game series. Starks is remembered for his 2 for 18 shooting disaster in Game 7.
The Oklahoma native was one of the league's three-point shooting specialists and still holds the Knicks' team record with 982. He ended his basketball career in Utah in 2002.
John Starks: "I can remember hitting the game-winning shot and then going back and partying afterward and getting caught with some marijuana [in his dorm room]. I ended up getting kicked out of school."
Cue to the 50-minute mark below.
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