"They're not Carmelo," Ewing said, laughing. "They're not Carmelo."

[cavsfanatic]

Carmelo has been out of the 1st rd once so I don't know what he talking bout.

[Clutch]

Carmelo has been out of the 1st rd once so I don't know what he talking bout.

And how many times was Garnett out of the 1st round until he came to Boston ?
Right,and he is still considered an all-time great.

[FatComputerNerd]

Their 99 finals run was mostly thanks to Sprewell and Camby

[Go Getter]

Dirk had....... Jason Terry

And Jason Kidd, and Tyson Chander, and Steve Nash (once upon a time), and Shaw Marion...

[Blue&Orange]

NBA players and their ego's. He can eventually even be right, probably is, but it isn't classy at all.

[NugzHeat3]

It definitely would have been interesting...but I'm glad I didn't see it

By the way, you think the 97 Knicks were the best of Ewing's teams? I can't make up my mind on that.

I think the 1997 team is probably the best one.

Ewing was slightly worse as opposed to his 1992-95 self. How much? I'm not quite sure. Offensively, its roughly a wash because he was mainly a jumpshooter in these years. He actually played better against Zo and PJ Brown (two great defenders) than he did in some of the series in that time span. With Zo, he kind of knew what he was getting into since he was his mentor and knew his game really well (both John Thompson students). I think if he lost something, its on the defensive end although I remember Smits working him on the block in those years as well. Shot blocking/rebounding is something I'd say was worse.

Their PF rotation was solid with Oakley and Buck Williams. Both are your prototypical PFs doing the dirty work, playing good defense and hitting the jumpshot when played off of.

Childs was a solid starter, good defense, made smart plays and could hit the outside jumper. If you're comparing them to the 1993 team, he roughly cancels out Rivers, better probably because Doc was injured on the reg. Ward roughly cancels out Greg Anthony and Hubert Davis. None of these guys are as good as Mark Jackson though and Jackson isn't good as Derek Harper.

Houston was the biggest upgrade imo. Houston gave them another reliable scorer and relieved some off the pressure off both Patrick and Starks. Now, Starks can be used to bring a scoring punch off the bench.

LJ was decent and he made it work on talent but I don't think he was a great fit on that team because the post was already occupied. His talents were underutilized offensively but I think he got better as a defender that year, losing weight and moulding into a SF.

That's how I see it. Spacing on the offensive end and a more balanced scoring load. The defense isn't quite as good though still great.

[bluechox2]

"camby man" was the difference only to hit 2 big walls..

[Da_Realist]

I think the 1997 team is probably the best one.

Ewing was slightly worse as opposed to his 1992-95 self. How much? I'm not quite sure. Offensively, its roughly a wash because he was mainly a jumpshooter in these years. He actually played better against Zo and PJ Brown (two great defenders) than he did in some of the series in that time span. With Zo, he kind of knew what he was getting into since he was his mentor and knew his game really well (both John Thompson students). I think if he lost something, its on the defensive end although I remember Smits working him on the block in those years as well. Shot blocking/rebounding is something I'd say was worse.

Their PF rotation was solid with Oakley and Buck Williams. Both are your prototypical PFs doing the dirty work, playing good defense and hitting the jumpshot when played off of.

Childs was a solid starter, good defense, made smart plays and could hit the outside jumper. If you're comparing them to the 1993 team, he roughly cancels out Rivers, better probably because Doc was injured on the reg. Ward roughly cancels out Greg Anthony and Hubert Davis. None of these guys are as good as Mark Jackson though and Jackson isn't good as Derek Harper.

Houston was the biggest upgrade imo. Houston gave them another reliable scorer and relieved some off the pressure off both Patrick and Starks. Now, Starks can be used to bring a scoring punch off the bench.

LJ was decent and he made it work on talent but I don't think he was a great fit on that team because the post was already occupied. His talents were underutilized offensively but I think he got better as a defender that year, losing weight and moulding into a SF.

That's how I see it. Spacing on the offensive end and a more balanced scoring load. The defense isn't quite as good though still great.

You replace a better Ewing and A+ defense for A- defense and better offensive balance. I may have to agree with you. That should have been another epic battle between Chicago and NY. And probably would have been as good as 92-94.

[SmackOrH.A.K]

yeah people need to realize Ewing did it all pretty much on his own. Cant blame him for not having a ring. If i remember correctly Hakeem had Drexler, Robinson had Duncan etc.

okay...first of all hakeem won his first championship AGAINST EWING, WITHOUT DREXLER or anyone close to all star level. he did have great role players but they were still not Starks or Oakleys. infact hakeem and d-rob freaking raped Ewing one on one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuSMjUTGQTg

[knickswin]

Too much is being made of who has the best "sidekick". A collection of B teammates is better than one B+ teammate and a bunch of scrubs.

I'd take the 92 or 93 Knicks over Ewing/Melo and filler.

Defense and effort. Two things Melo is criticized for. Ewing had his chances with some good teams, he just lost.

Eh, I'd take Ewing/Melo and filler unless the filler were D leaguers or something like that. The thing is, a really good scorer either commands a double or will kill his defender one-on-one. Commanding doubles I think is really important because if the guy getting doubled is a decent enough passer it opens things up for less offensively talented teammates and makes their jobs a lot easier.

I think DMAVS' point about most championship teams having at least two really good players is true, and it's because if you have two players who more or less command doubles playing in a system that allows for them to pass out of doubles to give teammates easy looks, that team is more or less impossible to stop with five defenders.

If Ewing had a guy like Melo who would take so much of the offensive load off of him (really, Carmelo would be the first option on that team), I think the Knicks would have won a championship at some point in the 90s. I like John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Allan Houston, but they're not Carmelo.

[eliteballer]

The only time prime ewing had anything close to resembling a "star" was when he had Mcdaniel, and he was just a one time all star.

Guess what? They took the best Bulls team to 7......

[eliteballer]

Starks an all-star, i remember that Oakley was just a great roleplayer. Its like comparing prime Marion to Dirk...yeah the numbers arent all that different but......

[ShaqAttack3234]

Ewing had excellent defenders on his cast and Pat Riley utilized the limited talent around him really well, but it was ewing and role players. He could've used more offensive weapons. Starks could be a good offensive player, but he was really too streaky to be the 2nd option, imo. Then the whole Don nelson situation was a disaster. I'd agree that the '97 Knicks were the best cast he had as an elite player. The 2000 team was really good as well, unfortunately, he was too old by that point.

His 1990 season was wasted, though. That was by far his best season, however he had no chance of winning a title with a cast that consisted of Oakley(who had missed the final 17 regular season games), 33 year old Mo Cheeks(who was acquired in a midseason trade and only started the final 13 regular season games), Gerald Wilkins, 31 year old Kiki Vandweghe(who missed most of the season and didn't even play until March, Johnny Newman, Trent Tucker and Kenny Walker.

It's amazing that they won 3 straight elimination games to beat an aging, but much more talented Celtics team. And they did so because of Ewing's dominance. Granted, Ewing didn't play that well against Detroit outside of game 3. Detroit really limited him, but with that cast, he had no chance of beating the defending champ Pistons who were absolutely loaded.

[Da_Realist]

Eh, I'd take Ewing/Melo and filler unless the filler were D leaguers or something like that. The thing is, a really good scorer either commands a double or will kill his defender one-on-one. Commanding doubles I think is really important because if the guy getting doubled is a decent enough passer it opens things up for less offensively talented teammates and makes their jobs a lot easier.

I think DMAVS' point about most championship teams having at least two really good players is true, and it's because if you have two players who more or less command doubles playing in a system that allows for them to pass out of doubles to give teammates easy looks, that team is more or less impossible to stop with five defenders.

If Ewing had a guy like Melo who would take so much of the offensive load off of him (really, Carmelo would be the first option on that team), I think the Knicks would have won a championship at some point in the 90s. I like John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Allan Houston, but they're not Carmelo.

I wouldn't rest my championship dreams on Melo so I'm a little biased against that. I'd take my chances with Ewing as the #1 with Melo filling in at #2.

[NugzHeat3]

Ewing had excellent defenders on his cast and Pat Riley utilized the limited talent around him really well, but it was ewing and role players. He could've used more offensive weapons. Starks could be a good offensive player, but he was really too streaky to be the 2nd option, imo. Then the whole Don nelson situation was a disaster. I'd agree that the '97 Knicks were the best cast he had as an elite player. The 2000 team was really good as well, unfortunately, he was too old by that point.

His 1990 season was wasted, though. That was by far his best season, however he had no chance of winning a title with a cast that consisted of Oakley(who had missed the final 17 regular season games), 33 year old Mo Cheeks(who was acquired in a midseason trade and only started the final 13 regular season games), Gerald Wilkins, 31 year old Kiki Vandweghe(who missed most of the season and didn't even play until March, Johnny Newman, Trent Tucker and Kenny Walker.

It's amazing that they won 3 straight elimination games to beat an aging, but much more talented Celtics team. And they did so because of Ewing's dominance. Granted, Ewing didn't play that well against Detroit outside of game 3. Detroit really limited him, but with that cast, he had no chance of beating the defending champ Pistons who were absolutely loaded.

That was a great year for Ewing. He got league wide recognition as well. In the Sporting News Player of the year voting:

Lakers Coach Pat Riley has been selected by his peers as The Sporting News' Coach of the Year and NBA players have voted Philadelphia 76ers forward Charles Barkley over Magic Johnson as Player of the Year, the St. Louis-based publication said today,

In balloting by 180 NBA players for Sporting News Player of the Year, Barkley received 57 1/2 votes. Johnson received 44 1/2. Chicago's Michael Jordan was third with 44 votes, followed by New York's Patrick Ewing with 21 1/2 and Houston's Akeem Olajuwon with seven.

^LA Times, May 1990. Pretty amazing to get a decent amount of votes with Jordan, Magic and Barkley playing at their best.

This is another nice piece on him early in the season when the Knicks were doing well. It focuses on his improvements that year as well as the impact he's making.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...t+center&hl=en

Mychal Thompson mentions he's arguably the best in the league, neck and neck with Magic. Jordan gives him some props as well.