The Season was 1993, and the New York Knicks were playing in the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
The John Starks Dunk on Jordan is one of the most replayed NBA Dunks in NBA History.
The Chicago Bulls were coming off two Championships and Michael Jordan was the best player in the NBA when John Starks had the job of guarding him in Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Playoffs.
The crowd was pumping at Madison Square Garden, in New York.
Everybody wanted a ticket not only to see the New York Knicks, but Michael Jordan in Action who was well regarded as the best player in the NBA at the time.
The Scenario
The New York Knicks had won Game 1 of the series, 98-90 in New York, with Johns Starks starring with 25 Points, and Patrick Ewing scoring 25 Points and 17 Rebounds.
The Knicks came into Game two full of confidence riding on a lot of support from the home crowd at the Garden.
John Starks had the job of defending the best player in the NBA, and was holding his own and growing in confidence. Every time Jordan got the Ball, Starks was there with some of the best defence the game has seen.
Starks is a fair bit shorter than Jordan at 6ft 3, but was hitting shots and managing to contain the effectiveness of Jordan with a bit of help from his teammates.
The game was played on the 25th of May 1993, and the Knicks managed to get the win again 96-91. Jordan was pretty good in this game with 36 points, and is always hard to contain.
The game will be remembered for some of the efforts of John Starks Defensively and Offensively.
The Dunk
Starks made some big defensive plays on Jordan during this encounter and had the crowd on their feet when he continually forced Jordan into some tough shots on the offensive end.
He did get dragged by coach Pat Riley after a significant defensive effort was followed by an unnecessary early shot with a lot of time left on the 24 second shot clock.
Starks got a chance to redeem himself and hit the court late in the game for one of the most replayed Slam Dunks in NBA History. He scored only 12 points in this game, but the John Starks Dunk on Jordan was two of the most memorable points for Basketball in the 1990s.
The New York Knicks were up 91 to 88 against the Bulls when John Starks dribbled the ball up the court and past the halfway line. He proceeds to take on B.J. Armstrong for a little one on one and then gets past him, drives to the hoop, and throws the ball down with his non-preferred left hand at around the 48-second mark of the final quarter.
The John Starks Dunk gave the Knicks a 93-88 lead, and all but gave them a 2-0 lead against the fancied favourites for the 1993 NBA Championship.
At 6ft 3, Starks rose above the Chicago Bulls big man Horace Grant, and Michael Jordan jumped towards the hoop to try and stop it to no avail.
The crowd at the Madison Square Garden erupted as they had just watched one of the best all-time dunks and started getting excited as they were now a chance to win a series against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
For the record, the Bulls won the next four matches and went on the win the 1993 NBA Title.
The John Starks Dunk over Jordan, however, was one of the All-time greats because he dunked on two NBA Stars, and gave a struggling franchise some hope to win an NBA title finally.
For those of you who have never seen it, check it out on in the below video.
A couple of other awesome NBA Dunks were the Tom Chambers Dunk on Mark Jackson and the Baron Davis Dunk during the Golden State Warriors 2007 Playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks.