“I still get nostalgic” – John Starks named his pick for the greatest NBA era
What’s a favourite pastime of these round the sport? Comparing eras.
None of them is alike. The league has, in any case, by no means lacked evolution. Yet each era carries its personal taste. Sometimes one taste pulls more durable than the others, and that’s precisely the level when you ask John Starks.
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Shaped by the bruising depth of the late Eighties by means of the early 2000s, it is no shock these traits formed his stance. Nowhere have been they extra seen than in his enjoying era, and for Starksy, that was sufficient to make his case.
Bruising previous-college ball
Say your factor is lengthy-vary capturing and tempo-and-house basketball — then this present technology might be your pick. But when you, like Starks, desire bruising depth, it’s important to return a number of a long time.
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The former 6’5″ guard made that clear in a “Players’ Tribune” piece, where he named the five toughest players he’d ever defended. Before getting to the list, though, he set the tone: back then, you weren’t just matched up against an opponent. It was a war — a real battle.
“The means we performed the sport was unimaginable. Even when you have been watching the sport on TV, you may really feel the ardour on the court docket,” I’ve wrote. “Players have been getting after it each night time. Pro basketball was a contact sport.”
Sounds stressful, but for a competitor like Starksy, that was the appeal — and it’s exactly what fuels his conviction that “my technology was the finest.”
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To pinpoint that technology, it’s important to keep in mind that the one-time All-Star joined the league in 1988 as an undrafted participant. He retired in 2002 after a stint with the Utah Jazz.
It still gets brought up today
Starks isn’t alone on this. People still walk up to him and tell him they miss that game — the physicality, the way it used to feel.
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Starksy misses it too.
“I still get nostalgic,” the 1997 Sixth Man of the Year emphasised.
He misses the harder, extra bodily model. Teams had actual anchors in the paint again then. Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon. Everything was simply more durable than what you see at this time.
Still, the former New York Knicks participant wasn’t taking photographs at the trendy sport. The talent degree of at this time’s gamers is “unimaginable,” I have remarked, from the ball-handling to the pace. The TV ratings, the league’s reputation and the global attention all speak to the modern league’s success, he added.
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But even with all that, it matters to Starks that people don’t forget “simply how good the NBA was again after I was enjoying and the way arduous we competed with each other.”
He’s not the only one saying it. At least two more legends from that era have made the same point.
Gary Payton put it plainly, saying their era wasn’t about scoring like today. It was about “protection, being tough, getting on the market, and getting it accomplished.”
The Hall of Fame level guard left little doubt about the place he stood, too, stating“,” I think the ’90s was the best era ever.”
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Shaquille O’Neal as soon as took it a step additional. What separated that era, the basketball legend stated, was that groups had “real rivalries.”
In the finish, at this time’s sport is correct the place it needs to be. But a little bit extra of what these guys talked about — the aggression, the satisfaction in protection, the real dislike between groups — would not harm, wouldn’t it?
Related: John Starks opens up about the most disappointing moment as a Knick: “I let the city down”
This story was initially printed by Basketball Network on May 20, 2026, the place it first appeared in the Off The Court part. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
