"I sit down there, Larry sits down there, and a few guys sit down there when they’re in town," John Starks said, describing the cluster of former Knicks who have become a regular courtside presence at Madison Square Garden. The seating, he added, began to feel like its own kind of momentum during the Indiana series.
Starks pointed to a concrete change behind that momentum: Knicks owner James Dolan began reserving 14 courtside baseline seats for former players during the 2023-24 season. The grouping — which included figures from the 1960s and 1970s through Carmelo Anthony from the 2010s — drew noticeable television attention during the 2025 Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers.
That visibility carried a message Starks emphasized plainly: "It showed that these guys are still valuable to the organization." Walt Frazier, watching the collection of ex-players on the baseline, called it "like a family reunion," and added that "all the decades are represented. And they know the struggle." The number — 14 reserved seats — is the clearest sign the club organized the alumni presence rather than leaving it to chance.
Starks is more than a familiar face. He played for the Knicks from 1990 to 1998, was the club’s 1994 NBA All-Star, remains the franchise’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made, dunked on Michael Jordan in the 1993 Eastern Conference finals and was hired in 2004 as an alumni and fan development advisor. Part of his job, he said, is helping former players stay connected to the franchise and involved in community events — a role the new seating has amplified by moving that work into full view of the Garden crowd and national broadcasts.
The courtside alumni have reunited teammates who had not seen one another in decades. Larry Johnson, who has been among the baseline group, called it Alumni Row and recounted that he hadn’t seen Marcus Camby and Latrell Sprewell "in 20, 25 years," and that he hadn’t seen Kurt Thomas for "20-25 years." He noted that Camby and Sprewell had reconnected last year, Chris Childs "started coming back this year," and Charlie Ward attended a couple games this season.
The program also exposes an odd contrast. Madison Square Garden has long been known for celebrity courtside seats; adding former players to that mix signals an attempt to knit franchise history into the modern spectacle. But it was televised excitement — cameras picking up the alumni on their feet, cheering — that seemed to prompt the recognition rather than the other way around. Starks acknowledged as much: "TV picked up on us getting up, cheering the team on, and it kind of grew out of that." The optics, therefore, functioned both as genuine reunion and as a reminder that the franchise has a living legacy worth showcasing.
Which former Knicks have sat in those seats is now plain. Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Allan Houston and Stephon Marbury were among those seen cheering from the baseline during the 2025 Eastern Conference finals. Walt Frazier framed their presence as appreciation: "It’s very rewarding that they appreciate what we’ve done in the past and what we have meant to the team. They are not forgetting us with the team success. They’ve made us a part of it. …"
The visible alumni cluster has become a recurring element of the Garden experience, but its future is unresolved. The Knicks established the 14-seat baseline reservation in the 2023-24 season and it became especially noticeable during the 2025 playoff run; the team has not announced whether the arrangement will be permanent or seasonally adjusted. For now, Starks and the others will keep showing up when they can — but whether the courtside alumni will remain a fixture every postseason depends on a choice the club has yet to make.
