[3] Starks transferred to Northern Oklahoma College in spring 1985, made the basketball team there, and was sentenced to five days in jail for the robbery.

[4] In the fall of 1985, Starks averaged 11 points per game with Northern Oklahoma but left the college after being caught smoking cannabis in his dorm.

[5] Having worked at a Safeway supermarket, Starks enrolled at Tulsa Junior College in the summer of 1986 to pursue a business degree.

Starks played there for a season, then earned a scholarship at Oklahoma State University in 1988, where he finished his collegiate career.

Starks eventually became the starting shooting guard, becoming a key player on the team and playing eight seasons in New York, from 1990 to 1998.

Starks was a poster child for their physical play during that era,[citation needed] along with teammates Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley.

In Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals against the Chicago Bulls, Starks was in the court's right corner, and closely guarded by B. J. Armstrong.

In the closing seconds of Game 3 and the Knicks trailing by three, Starks was fouled by Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon while attempting a three-pointer.

Starks made both, but Houston won 93–89 (the league would change the rule to allow three free throws the next season).

However, in the final seconds of Game 6, Olajuwon blocked Starks' last-second three-point attempt to give Houston an 86–84 victory.

[12] In the offseason, Pat Riley left the Knicks to go to the Miami Heat after a dispute with then General Manager Dave Checketts.

On the play, he rebounded an Allan Houston missed three while getting to the three-point line and head-faked the Suns' Wesley Person before releasing the shot just as the horn sounded.

After his stint with Golden State, Starks played for the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz before failing to make an NBA team in 2002 and retiring with 10,829 career points.

Despite his relatively short height, Starks was, like his teammates Charles Oakley and Patrick Ewing, an apt defender on the 1990s defensive-minded New York Knicks, which employed a physical No Lay-Up Defense under head coach Pat Riley.

Starks is mentioned by surname in A Tribe Called Quest's song "8 Million Stories" on Midnight Marauders and in Beastie Boys' "Get It Together" off Ill Communication.