Retired Players I HATED Watching #2 (Charles Oakley was a close runner-up for this entry)

John Starks

I grew up a Heat fan, so I hated the Knicks -- all of the Knicks, the entire team. But for me, John Starks is as much an embodiment of those 1990s Knick teams as anyone. Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson (and even bums like Charlie Ward and Chris Childs) normally had better games against us statistically, but Starks was always a pest. He always played so hard, hustling and defending all over the court...I could almost respect his intensity, if I didn't hate his guts so much. I couldn't even stand the sight of him. I don't even want to post his picture on here. He just evoked such a bitterly visceral response from me. I never even met the guy (and probably never will), but he was still one of my least favorite people in the world.

And he was such a streaky shooter, he ran so hot-and-cold. When his jumper was on, he was actually pretty unstoppable from the perimeter; he could drill any shot from any spot on the floor, over any defender, under any kind of duress. But when his shot was off, he was terrible. He couldn't toss the ball into the ocean. If he was having a bad night, he was all bricks. Everything would thud hard off the back of the iron. It was like that elimination game against the Rockets in '94 Finals when his statline was like 2-for-18, or something equally as pathetic. According to my calculator, that's an 11% field goal percentage. That's barely even mathematically possible. And that's how he was -- he either couldn't miss or couldn't make.

Starks sucks.

John Starks' career statistics



Oh, and he's known for this famous (and completely overrated) dunk against the Bulls in the playoffs. Lots of people like to brag about how he banged on Michael Jordan, but that's not entirely true. If you look at the replay, he's really banging on Horace Grant.