John Starks nearly ran onto the court at Madison Square Garden Tuesday evening as the New York Knicks completed one of the most improbable comebacks of the postseason, rallying from a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime and take a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Jalen Brunson spearheaded the rally that forced overtime, and the Knicks finished the night with the win in extra time. The comeback left Madison Square Garden — packed with celebrities and former Knicks players — buzzing about a team that is now three wins away from a trip to the NBA Finals.
The turning point came late in the fourth. After Landry Shamet drilled a three-pointer that tied the game with under a minute left, Starks appeared to leap from his seat toward the court in celebration. One of his fist pumps came close enough to Evan Mobley’s head that it nearly made contact; Starks did not hit Mobley.
The image of a 1990s Knicks icon almost charging the floor became part of the postgame noise. The presence of Starks — a hallmark of the Knicks’ 1990s teams — felt like a tether to the franchise’s last sustained runs of success. For a franchise that has not reached the NBA Finals in the 21st century, Game 1 offered both vindication and a reminder of how much is at stake this postseason.
The moment also produced immediate pushback. On the national show First Take, Brian Windhorst criticized Starks’ actions, saying, "Starks by the way is coming on the court last night. Starks and Marbury are aiding the Knicks on defense last night. They're on the court, get them off the court!" The remark underscored a larger tension: fans and former players are part of the Garden’s electricity, but that energy can blur into interference when playoff games are decided by split-second swings.
That contradiction — the Garden as both advantage and potential liability — was threaded through the night. Brunson’s rally was the on-court answer to two decades of near-misses; Starks’ near-charge was an off-court reminder that history is alive in the rafters. The Knicks’ victory in Game 1 puts them within three wins of the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals this century, and it forces the Cavaliers to respond immediately.
Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday at 8:00 pm ET back at Madison Square Garden, and it will measure how the Knicks handle the attention their comeback has drawn. If the team can bottle the momentum produced by Brunson and keep sideline celebrations from crossing into the game, the Knicks will have given themselves a clear path to finish what they started Tuesday: three more wins standing between them and a first Finals appearance in the 21st century.
