Patrick Ewing is the Greatest Knick of All Time

From 1998 through 2000 (12 seasons), the Knicks won 18 playoff series and 81 playoff games. In the 22 seasons since the Knicks traded Ewing, NY has won one playoff series and 10 playoffs games.

No disrespect to "Clyde" or "The Captain," but Patrick Ewing is the best player ever to wear a Knicks uniform. That's why he lands at the very top of the "The Top 75 Knicks of All Time" list.  

1. Patrick Ewing

First, let's start with the stats. Ewing is the all-time franchise leader in nearly every meaningful category: points, rebounds, blocks and steals. And, yeah, Patrick never won a ring, but he put the Knicks on his back and carried them deep into the postseason with a subpar supporting cast year after year after year. He never quite reached the mountaintop (he was just an Olajuwon fingertip away in 1994), but is it fair to place the blame squarely on his shoulders? 

Patrick was born August 5, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica (one day before Jamaica declared independence). He played cricket and soccer as a child and was introduced to basketball only after moving to America at 11. Despite playing the game for a short time, Ewing developed into one of the most highly recruited players in the country under head coach Mike Jarvis at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School outside of Boston. It was at this early age that Patrick first learned how to deal with vile vitriol, including racist chants, from opposing fans.

Ewing, who had offers from nearly every top program in the country, decided to enroll at Georgetown University. Years later, Patrick acknowledged that he was seriously considering attending the University of North Carolina but decided against it when he witnessed a large Ku Klux Klan rally outside his hotel in Chapel Hill during his recruiting visit.

During his legendary four years at Georgetown, Patrick would establish himself as one of the greatest players in NCAA history. He led the Hoyas to three national championship games, capturing the title in 1984. He ranks first in school history in rebounds and blocks and second in total points. 

However, he still dealt with an onslaught of animus. During a game against Villanova early in his collegiate career, fans held up a bed sheet that read, "Ewing Is an Ape." Another fan wore a T-shirt that read, "Ewing Kant Read Dis." Someone tossed a banana peel on the court during pregame introductions before a different Big East contest. In a separate road game against Providence, a fan raised a sign that said, "Ewing Can't Read." 

"It is cheap, racist stuff," the Rev. Timothy J. Healy, president of Georgetown, told the Washington Post in 1983. "No one on the face of the Earth can tell me if Patrick were a 7-foot-high white man that people would still carry those signs around. I'm a white man, and I know it."

Head Coach John Thompson, who served as a father figure and a mentor to Ewing at Georgetown, said he saw a sign reading, "Ewing Can't Spell His Name" in the student section during a game at the Palestra. Thompson pulled his team off the court until it was removed from the arena. "They kept passing it until one little girl, a college girl, tore it up in the middle. We had administrators there who watched and did nothing," Thompson said.

Shamefully, league officials did little to quell the depraved behavior. Dave Gavitt, the Big East commissioner at the time, said, "It's up to the individual schools to keep the situation as tidy as possible. I don't know how to prevent the signs from going up. It's unfortunate people choose to do it. The game administrators must keep control . . . Really, there is nothing the conference can do to control the signs in nine different buildings."

Ted Aceto, Villanova athletic director in the 80s, told WaPo he personally took down several anti-Ewing signs before the game, including the bed sheet that read, "Ewing Is An Ape." Aceto stated, "You have to realize, those kinds of signs are common in Philadelphia. You should see all of the signs at the Big Five games (games played between the five colleges located in Philadelphia)."

After grading from Georgetown and earning a degree in Fine Arts, Ewing was the grand prize in the 1985 lottery. Each of the seven NBA teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs the prior season had an equal (14.3%) chance to win the lottery. In one of the seminal moments in New York basketball history, the Knicks (represented on the dais by the great Dave Debusheere) won the right to select Patrick. It was a pivotal point in the history of the franchise.

Prior to Ewing's arrival in NYC, the Knicks had won just 24 games (their worst season in two decades). Bernard King had just torn his ACL, and Bill Cartwright had missed the entire season due to a foot injury. 

By 1987-88, the Knicks were back in the postseason, with Ewing being named to the All-NBA Second Team. It was the first of 14 consecutive trips to the playoffs for New York. The following season, they won 52 games and captured the Atlantic Division crown. 

Over a five-year span, from 1989-90 through 1993-94, Ewing had established himself as one of the preeminent players on the planet. During that stretch, he averaged 25.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 3.0 blocks, while shooting 52% from the floor and 75% from the free-throw line. Ewing also played in 470 out of possible 475 games while logging more than 38 minutes a night. He was often referred to as a "warrior" for a reason.

In 1994, Ewing carried the Knicks all the way to the NBA Finals. In a Game 7 victory over the Bulls in the semis, Ewing ripped down 17 rebounds and dished out six assists. Two weeks later, Patrick pushed New York to the brink of the Promised Land with a heroic performance in Game 7 Eastern Conference Finals vs. the Pacers, racking up 24 points, 22 rebounds, seven assists, and five blocks. 

Yes, the Knicks fell short in the Finals that year to the Hakeem Olajuwon-led Houston Rockets (after getting beat by Michael Jordan's Bulls in the three years prior), but only a fool would pin those defeats solely on Ewing. 

In the four deciding games New York played that postseason (Game 4 vs. New Jersey and three Game 7's vs. Chicago, Indiana and Houston), Ewing averaged 23.8 points, 15.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.3 blocks. 

There are only three genuine contenders for the title "Greatest Knicks of All Time" - Ewing, Walt Frazier and Willis Reed. 

Patrick gets the top spot because he did the most with the least.

Consider this: There were six (yes, SIX) Hall-of-Famers on Willis and Clyde's legendary championship teams. In 1969-70, three of the Knicks' five starters (Reed, Frazier and DeBusschere) each made NBA All-Defensive First-Team. The 1972-73 Knicks had five players that were eventually named to the NBA's "50 Greatest Players" list compiled in 1999. 

In contrast, Ewing never played alongside a teammate that made more than one All-Star team! The only time he played alongside an All-Star in the entire decade of the 1990s was when Charles Oakley and John Starks received the honors in 1994.

Ewing was never fully appreciated by far too many casual fans during his time in New York and was frequently ridiculed for his inability to bring home a championship. Part of the reason for this was his often icy relationship with the press and the public. However, given what we know of the trials and tribulations Ewing dealt with as a young man, can we blame him for developing a thick skin and turning inward to protect himself?

While we're here, let's take a quick second to debunk the ridiculous "Ewing Theory" promulgated by Bill Simmons. In 2001, Simmons, then a columnist for ESPN, authored a column entitled "Ewing Theory 101." Simmons (aka the Boston Sports Guy) explained that "The theory was created in the mid-'90s by Dave Cirilli, a friend of mine who was convinced that Patrick Ewing's teams (both at Georgetown and with New York) inexplicably played better when Ewing was either injured or missing extended stretches because of foul trouble."

It's a cool-sounding theory and surely got Simmons plenty of clicks. Only one problem; it's complete bullshit.

Before Ewing's arrival on campus, Georgetown had advanced past the first round of the NCAA tournament only twice in school history. It had never come close to notching 30+ wins in a single season. 

As a freshman, Ewing led the Hoyas to a 30-7 record and the National Championship game. Then, during his junior season, Georgetown went 34-3 and capped off the year by capturing their only NCAA championship in school history by knocking off the University of Houston. The Hoyas went 35-3 the following season, Patrick's final year in college, and again made it to the championship game. Ewing was an ironman, playing in 143 out of a possible 144 games.

Since Ewing left school, Georgetown has yet to win more than 30 games. They've made the Final Four just once, never advancing to the championship round. 

I've already detailed the Knicks' consistent success with Ewing. In September of 2000, the Knicks unceremoniously traded Ewing to the Seattle Sonics. So, according to the "Ewing Theory," this must be when New York finally became a competitive/winning franchise after dropping their old albatross of a center.

Right?

Wrong.

In their first season sans Ewing, the Knicks failed to make it out of the first round for the first time in a decade. In 2001-02, they could not qualify for the postseason for the first time since 1987. It's been all downhill since then.

In fact, in the 22 years since the Knicks traded Patrick Ewing, they have lost more games (1,041) than any other team in the NBA. Their .409 winning percentage is the worst in the league this century. 

Contrast that with the Knicks' record during Ewing's prime. From 1988 through 2000, the Knicks went 583-369 (a .612 winning percentage). The only Eastern Conference club with a better record and most postseason victories was the Chicago Bulls. 

How vital was Ewing to the franchise? From 1988 through 2000 (12 seasons), the Knicks won 18 playoff series and 81 playoff games.

In the 22 seasons since the Knicks traded Ewing, New York has won a grand total of one playoff series and ten playoff games.

The "Ewing Theory" never made any sense when it was initially written and makes even less sense now, with the benefit of hindsight. 

Patrick Ewing is the most underappreciated superstar in the history of New York sports. And he is the greatest Knick that ever lived.