Whether you know and love John Starks for The Dunk in the '93 playoffs, or know and hate John Starks for going cold in game 7 of the '94 finals, you at least know him as a famous professional basketball player.

And that basically wasn't suppose to happen. Odds-wise, logic-wise, expectations-wise, there was no way Starks was making it to the NBA, let alone thriving there. Ask any of the coaches who saw him in high school, or Jr college, or even his first NBA coach Don Nelson. (okay technically, yes, Nelson thought Starks could make the NBA because he did give him a roster spot, but Nelson took that roster spot away as soon as he possibly could).

To see John Starks before he was the New York Knicks' John Starks, let's look through the prism.