Today in Sports History: June 22nd

6/22/1994 - Starks awful as Rockets win series

The Houston Rockets defeat the New York Knicks, 90-84, in the seventh and final game of the NBA Finals, giving them their first championship in franchise history. Hakeem Olajuwon showed why he was the regular season MVP. He totaled 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks in the finale and took home the series MVP as well. Patrick Ewing, his counterpart at the center position, scored 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Derek Harper led the Knicks with 23 while Vernon Maxwell gave the Rockets 21.

New York’s loss was pinned on the poor shooting performance of John Starks, who picked a bad time to have the worst game of his career. Starks shot a dismal 2-18 from the floor, missing all 11 three-pointers and making just one of 10 shots in the fourth quarter. Both he and coach Pat Riley were criticized for the loss: Starks for taking so many shots when he obviously wasn’t playing well and Riley for allowing him to play the entire fourth quarter.

“I overprepared,” Starks told the New York Times two days later. “I tried to come up with a game plan to go into Game 7 instead of letting it go. I’ll know how to deal with that type of situation next year when we get back in that situation again. I feel confident that we’ll get back in that same situation, whether it’s against Houston or someone else.”

The finals would haunt Starks for the remainder of his career. Besides his dreadful shooting in Game 7, he also agonized himself over the ending of Game 6. Starks was fantastic in that game, scoring 27 points, dishing eight assists and scoring 16 in the fourth quarter. But he finished badly, committing a costly turnover with 41.9 seconds left and having his potential game-winning shot blocked by Hakeem Olajuwon in the closing seconds.

The Rockets would win it again in 1995 while the Knicks had to wait until 1999 to return to the finals.