Why Ewing never won an NBA title

[iamgine]

Why Ewing never won an NBA title.

By Hugo Lindgren

[QUOTE]Patrick Ewing led his teams to hundreds of victories. He played before adoring crowds packed with celebrities. He made tens of millions of dollars. By any definition, he led a charmed life. And yet as he retires from professional basketball, he does so as a tragic figure, an icon of not-quite-greatness, wearing, like a scarlet letter, the label of "couldn't win the big one."

There are two conventional views of Ewing's career, one charitable, one not. The nice version goes like this: Ewing was one of the greatest centers to ever play the game, his accomplishments limited only by the inability of Knicks management to surround him with sufficiently good players. The mean version: Ewing was a pigheaded, unimaginative player who was convinced he was much better than he really was and whose insistence on being the man dragged the Knicks' offense into the mud.

Joseph Nocera argued that Ewing's trade from New York to Seattle in 2000 was long overdue. The Knicks dumped the big man when he was all but worthless. Lindgren wrote that Jeff Van Gundy, who led New York to the finals in '99, spent years coaching a team with no discernable talent.

The New York papers are packed with (mostly fond) eulogies for Big Pat. The Daily News' Mike Lupica compares Ewing to Don Mattingly, another NYC legend who never delivered a ring. But the city never embraced Ewing like it did Matty. The Post's Kevin Kernan writes that Ewing "had that big smile, although he didn't smile nearly as much as he should have. He had a big sense of humor, too, although he rarely showed it to the outside world." ESPN.com's Mitch Lawrence says that "no player suffered more at the hands of Jordan than Ewing."

There is much evidence to support both opinions, though neither fully explains the sad arc of his career. Ewing's real problem, and by extension that of the near-great Knicks, was a quality that is usually admired in professional athletes: his obsession with improving and expanding his game. Ewing might, in fact, have won an NBA title if he'd done the opposite: if he'd narrowed his skills, refined them, and focused on the physical gifts that few others could match.

Consider the player that the Knicks drafted out of Georgetown with the first overall pick in the 1985 draft

[U got Served]

Top 3 reasons why Ewing never won a title....
1)Michael Jordan
2)Scottie Pippen
3)Hakeem Olajuwon

[sayitaintso]

I concur. Jordan and Hakeem were in his way. Jordan during the early 90s. And the year Jordan retired and the Knicks made it to the finals.

[Mr Clutch Melo]

Michael Jordan is Ewings nightmare

[Kblaze8855]

Hakeem got his fingernail on Starks jumper to win the title in game 6. Hakeem is a half second late Starks makes it and Ewing is suddenly great(though not finals MVP since Starks had played out of his mind for a while).

[bagelred]

If the 3 Point Shot John Starks takes in Game 6 was not blocked by Hakeem and goes in, Ewing wins a championship. History completely changes. Hakeem maybe doesn't win a championship ever and we are writing articles on "Why Hakeem never won an NBA title".

Stupid, right? Exactly.

[U got Served]

Well, we can't just assume that Stark's 3 was going in.

[Kblaze8855]

Well yea you cant know...but he was on fire. I wanna say he had 30 points with about 15 in the 4th. he had just hit a big 3 a little earlier. And he had a good look. Well I guess not that good since it got blocked but he had a look. hakeem just cgot there so fast...

[ShaqAttack3234]

This article makes it sound like Ewing's team consistently underachieved. He lost to the Bulls 3 consecutive seasons in the early 90's. Is someone going to seriously claim that Ewing's supporting cast was as good as Jordan's? Then he lost to Houston in 7 games, and even then his cast wasn't that great. Arguably better than Olajuwons', but no clear advantage as far as supporting casts. Then you have the suspension in 1997 and the injury in 1999.

And at the article making it sound like the 1999 Knicks were better without Ewing. Ewing led them to that game 5 victory over Miami. He outplayed a much younger, healthy Alonzo Mourning in his prime despite Ewing visibly being in pain. Ewing had 22/11 while Mourning had 21/5 on 43% shooting. Ewing led the Knicks in scoring and rebounding that game. What about the Atlanta series? Ewing played in all 4 games of the sweep and had 17/9 in game 4 to complete the sweep despite being far from 100%. They also won game 1 of the ECF with him.

Revionist history always makes it sound Ewing was injured and the Knicks made their run without him at all. They won 3 games during that run without him.

Ewing was one of the greats of his era and a better player than most of his contemporaries. He's the third best center of the 90's behind Olajuwon and O'Neal, IMO.

[DuMa]

I always wanted to see an Ewing/Shaq final for some reason.

[AMISTILLILL]

This article makes it sound like Ewing's team consistently underachieved. He lost to the Bulls 3 consecutive seasons in the early 90's. Is someone going to seriously claim that Ewing's supporting cast was as good as Jordan's? Then he lost to Houston in 7 games, and even then his cast wasn't that great. Arguably better than Olajuwons', but no clear advantage as far as supporting casts. Then you have the suspension in 1997 and the injury in 1999.

And at the article making it sound like the 1999 Knicks were better without Ewing. Ewing led them to that game 5 victory over Miami. He outplayed a much younger, healthy Alonzo Mourning in his prime despite Ewing visibly being in pain. Ewing had 22/11 while Mourning had 21/5 on 43% shooting. Ewing led the Knicks in scoring and rebounding that game. What about the Atlanta series? Ewing played in all 4 games of the sweep and had 17/9 in game 4 to complete the sweep despite being far from 100%. They also won game 1 of the ECF with him.

Revionist history always makes it sound Ewing was injured and the Knicks made their run without him at all. They won 3 games during that run without him.

Ewing was one of the greats of his era and a better player than most of his contemporaries. He's the third best center of the 90's behind Olajuwon and O'Neal, IMO.

Backed.

[TennesseeFan]

Top 3 reasons why Ewing never won a title....
1)Michael Jordan
2)Scottie Pippen
3)Hakeem Olajuwon
4)Reggie Miller

fixed.

[OnceInADECADE]

michael jordan


















/thread

[BRabbiT]

[GOBB]

Bulls dynasty stopped many from getting rings. Not just Ewing. Barkley, Stockton/Malone to name a few.

He's the third best center of the 90's behind Olajuwon and O'Neal, IMO.

I'm going with the guy in S.A.