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

[eliteballer]

ORLANDO - Patrick Ewing included John Starks, Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell and Charles Oakley among the best sidekicks he had during his 15 seasons with the Knicks. All four helped Ewing reach the NBA Finals, all four became All-Stars and there is something else all four have in common.

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

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011...-allan-houston

Got me thinking. Ewing got very close to the title a couple of times in his career, despite never playing with another true star. How do you think the Knicks would have done if they had Dominique(another guy who never really had great teamates) instead of their starting SFs from 89-94?

[NewYorkNoPicks]

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011...-allan-houston

Got me thinking. Ewing got very close to the title a couple of times in his career, despite never playing with another true star. How do you think the Knicks would have done if they had Dominique(another guy who never really had great teamates) instead of their starting SFs from 89-94?

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.

[Patrick Chewing]

I don't know about 'Nique as I think he was already on the decline in the mid to late 90's, but even so, I think the Knicks would have beaten the Rockets in Game 7.

[FF1]

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.

Dirk had....... Jason Terry

[ElPigto]

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.

Hakeem had role players the first year he won.

[Hammertime]

They had Nique's brother. That's something.

[DMV2]

Those 90's Knicks teams were twice better than the Amare/Melo Knicks, especially on the defensive end.

They even made it to the Finals when Ewing was injured for much of the 1999 season including the playoffs.

[Real Men Wear Green]

Spree was awesome in that lockout Finals run. Unfortunately Ewing was on the decline by then.

[millwad]

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.

Ewing definitely had better players by his side in '94, the fact that they lost the finals that year was mostly because of him. The only position where I honestly can give the advantage to Houston other than the center position is the PF position. Other than Otis Thorpe no one of Houston's players were better than their opponent on the same position. Hakeem outplayed Ewing and Ewing averaged low FG% through the through the finals, he got himself to blame, at least in '94.

[Inception28]

This reminds me of a few years ago when Tmac was talking about he would have been winning if he was with the Celtics instead of Paul Pierce or how he would have won if he had played with Duncan or Shaq. I guess Ewing's comments are more justifiable since he did it when his career was over while Tmac made his comments when he was playing.

[Da_Realist]

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.

[NugzHeat3]

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.

I don't know about that. Depends on who the fillers are to be honest.

But I agree if you're hinting at his support being underrated. They are probably the most stacked defensive team I've seen. I think they may have done better if they were more balanced.

[DMAVS41]

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.

both are really important. i'd rather have a solidified top 2 though. almost every team in history that has won a title has had 2 all nba players or at least 2 top 10 or 20 players.

i think you can find the filler over time. really hard to find that 1/2 punch.

just look at what has won lately:

jordan/pippen (rodman/grant as well)
shaq/kobe
robinson/duncan
duncan/manu/parker
wade/shaq
kg/allen/pierce
kobe/gasol/odom

going back further....

thomas/dumars...and very deep team
magic/worthy/kareem
bird/mchale/parish
moses/dr. j/toney

you almost always need two top players to win. hell, a lot of those teams have 3.

duncan did it somewhat by himself in 03. same with hakeem in 94. the pistons didn't really have a superstar so that doesn't fit this debate. dirk didn't have an elite 2nd option, but he had so many players step up and play like one at times. the mavs were also absurdly deep as well.

but you want to win titles? get two all nba players on the same team. that is what it takes.

[Da_Realist]

I don't know about that. Depends on who the fillers are to be honest.

But I agree if you're hinting at his support being underrated. They are probably the most stacked defensive team I've seen. I think they may have done better if they were more balanced.

I just think too much is made of who the 2nd best player on the team is because people are too lazy to look at the team as a whole 15 years later. I keep seeing how everyone thinks Hakeem won by himself because he didn't have a strong #2...but that's not true. His team was pretty damn good. They don't get to the Finals without Thorpe, Horry, Elie and Kenny Smith. They don't WIN the Finals without Sam Cassell.

Same thing with the early 00's Lakers. They don't win without Fox and Harper shutting down the perimeter or Horry and Fisher hitting clutch shots. Now they're considered "scrubs" that Shaq and Kobe carried to the title.

Ewing's Knicks were good. They were title contenders from 92 - 95 and again in 97. Was within one shot of winning it all in 94. Ewing had his chances...they just lost to better teams. If they had brought in an offensive guy like Melo, they would have lost some of the defense and effort that made them so good in the first place.

Were they imbalanced? Yes. But I think that was because they were built specifically to beat Chicago. They loaded up on bruising power forwards and defensive specialists to win the battle of the boards, push Chicago to the breaking point and maybe win that way. They knew they weren't going to outscore Chicago so why try? I always wondered what would have happened if they made it to the Finals in 93. They would have beaten the Bulls to get there but were all wrong for a team like the Suns. I think they would have lost to Phoenix because they didn't match up too well with them. That defense would have been spread out too thin.

[DMV2]

I lost a bit of respect for Ewing for throwing his former teammates under the bus like that. They made to the Finals with him and made it to there without him.

I hate "legends" who make excuses for things they didn't accomplish during their playing days. Just accept that there was/were other players/teams that were better than you.

Barkley wouldn't say this to Johnson or Majerle. Neither would Malone.