He played basketball at DeSales College in Toledo until the school closed in 1942, the University of Detroit, then enlisted in the United States Navy to serve in the Pacific theater of World War II.

[3] After returning home at the end of the war, a friend, Paul Taylor, signed Knorek to the New York Knicks.

[1] He only played one game with the Bullets before quitting the team, claiming that he was hobbled by an old knee injury[4] (though he later explained that he had grown too used to the "beautiful facilities" in New York.)

Knorek and his wife settled in Ohio, where he operated a liquor distribution company called Schenley Distillers.

Knorek briefly returned to basketball in 1959 to join a team of retired players at the NBA All-Star Game.