The New York Knicks are one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance in 27 years. They’ll go for the sweep over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals Monday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

As giddy Knicks fans savor the present, today also provides the opportunity to look back on one of the most indelible moments from the franchise’s 1990s heyday: “The Dunk.”

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Thirty-three years ago, on May 25, 1993, Knicks guard John Starks dunked over Horace Grant and Michael Jordan to help New York seal a Game 2 win and take a 2-0 lead over the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Though the Knicks would lose the series, Starks’ slam remains iconic more than three decades later.

Setting the scene

The Knicks were one of several Eastern Conference teams chasing Jordan and the Bulls during the 1992-93 season. Chicago had eliminated the Knicks in a hard-fought seven-game conference semifinal series the year before on their way to a second-straight NBA Finals win.

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The Knicks actually earned the No. 1 seed in the East, with a 60-22 overall record, while Chicago finished second with a 57-25 mark. Both teams handled their business in the first two rounds, setting up an epic showdown.

New York defended home court in Game 1, “holding” Jordan to 27 points on 10-of-27 shooting while Starks and All-Star center Patrick Ewing each contributed 25 points in a 98-90 win.

That set the stage for Game 2 on a Tuesday night in Manhattan and a chance for the Knicks to take control of the series.

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“The Dunk”

After a back-and-forth first half, the Knicks asserted themselves in the third quarter, outscoring Chicago 28-14 to take a 77-63 lead into the final period.

The Bulls battled back though, and it was 91-88 with just under a minute remaining when Starks dribbled the ball past halfcourt defended by Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong.

As he reached the foul-line extended area along the right sideline, Starks sized up Armstrong, while Ewing stepped forward to set a ballscreen. But Starks quickly rejected the screen and exploded past Armstrong toward the hoop.

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“B.J. Armstrong was guarding me most of the night. Whenever Patrick (Ewing) used to come over and set the pick, as soon as I cut my eyes, BJ would jump to my high side to push me baseline so they could trap me with Bill Cartwright or whoever was down there,” Starks said on “The Pivot” podcast recently.

“So when I was coming down, I started slow-dragging him down the court. Then, when I got in position, I saw Bill Cartwright was still high. BJ had his back turned to him. He wasn’t in position. And my eyes just lit up. I was like, ‘Okay,’” he continued. “I turned and cut my eyes, and he jumped high side again. When I took off, it was like one dribble, two dribbles. All I saw was Horace Grant.”

Bulls forward Horace Grant slid over to help, with Jordan shooting down from the foul line area. But Starks was too quick for both of them, taking off from two feet and throwing down a thunderous dunk that shook the Garden crowd.

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“It wasn’t until the next day that I saw who was on the back end of that picture. I was like, ‘Got you,’” Starks said about Jordan.

“I always explain it like this: I dunked on Horace Grant, but Michael Jordan got in the picture and made it look good.”

The aftermath

Starks put the Knicks ahead 93-88, and they went on to win 96-91. Unfortunately, that would be their final win of the series, as the Bulls evened things up at home, won the infamous Charles Smith Game at MSG in Game 5 and then closed out the series in six games in Chicago.

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With Jordan off playing minor league baseball, the Knicks would eventually break through the following season, winning the East before a heartbreaking seven-game NBA Finals loss to the Houston Rockets. They would get back to the Finals once more, in 1999, losing to the San Antonio Spurs.

The present

Flashing ahead to now, the Knicks are in the middle of a stunning 10-game win streak in the playoffs, with nine of those victories by double-digits. This is the organization’s best chance to win a title since that 1994 team.

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“This team right here, they’re kind of mellow guys. You know what I mean? They don’t get too up. They don’t get too down. And so I think they got a good temperament to be here in New York and play in this environment because they don’t let too many things get to them,” Starks told Men’s Journal back in March.

“Like I say, they kind of remind me of our teams back in the 90s. They’re such a close-knit unit, that they can feed off of one another and they can share thoughts and their deepest secrets and what have you. They know that it’s going to stay within within the group.

“You can’t fracture their toughness. You can’t fracture their mindset. And that’s what I love about them.”

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal on May 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Sports section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.