Brunch and basketball on the Nautical Mile

Brendan Phelan was asked what he knew about John Starks, and the 15-year-old rattled off the former Knicks star’s bio as if he were old enough to have seen Starks soar over NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan for “The Dunk” in Game Two of the 1993 Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and the Chicago Bulls.

“Played for the Knicks in the 1990s, two finals appearances in 1994 and 1999,” said Phelan, an Atlantic Beach resident who was rocking a Patrick Ewing jersey, one of many fans who came to the River House Grille on Woodcleft Avenue, on Freeport’s Nautical Mile, last Sunday to meet Starks and get an autograph.

“You meet a lot of interesting people,” Stark said in between signings. “You meet Knick fans, obviously, and you get a chance to see your fans that still appreciate what you did over the years, and it’s exciting — you never know who’s going to show up.”

Phelan, a Chaminade High School junior, is aiming to make the Flyers’ varsity basketball team in the coming school year, and his father, John, said that Starks’s story resonates for both of them. “It gives us hope that he can make the team and play down the road,” John said of his son.

Starks, who at one time bagged groceries at a Safeway and went undrafted in 1988, played in 866 NBA games from 1988 to 2002. A shooting guard, he played a significant role in one of the more successful runs in Knicks history.

“People know my story — it’s been well chronicled over the years,” he said. “You know, hard work — what anybody does requires hard work in order to be successful, so that goes without saying. I just came from a humble background, and I was fortunate enough to have people in my life that showed me what hard work can turn into, and I just tried to emulate that.”

Sitting at a table in front of the restaurant, Starks was friendly and welcoming to the fans, who ranged from pre-teens to adults, and quickly popped out of his chair, as if he were darting to the hoop, to pose for a photo.

“I get asked about that every day, every single day, no matter where I’m at,” he said of “The Dunk,” which was captured in a photo that became one of the NBA’s best-known posters. “It’s just a memory that’s kind of etched in people’s minds in those glory days that we had. I never get tired of it.”

Danielle Sachs, 14, from Roslyn, was decked out in a Greg Anthony jersey and a Knicks cap. When she was asked if she could help the Knicks break out of their current cycle of mediocrity, she said with a laugh, “If I could, I would.”

“I think we’re on the right track,” Starks said. “I think right now that [Knicks General Manager] Scott Perry and [President] Steve Mills are doing the right thing. Building through the draft, getting some free agents. I think the type of free agents that they’re bringing in, I think Knicks fans are really going to appreciate, because these guys are hard workers, and we need to get back to that mentality of working hard and doing the dirty little things that it takes to win basketball games.”

He added that you have to be “tough-minded” to play in New York.