The New York Post names centre Patrick Ewing as the No.1 Knick of all time

Centre Patrick Ewing has topped the New York Post’s list of the greatest Knicks of all time.

Mike Vaccaro

2 min read

December 15, 2021 - 12:04PM

Patrick Ewing rebounds against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Picture: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Basketball

Don't miss out on the headlines from Basketball. Followed categories will be added to My News.

This was long after the cheering had stopped, long after Patrick Ewing’s quest to add a third championship banner to the rafters at Madison Square Garden had ended.

Ewing sat in the basketball office at Georgetown University and pointed to a replica plaque on one of the walls.

“NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions 1984,” it read.

Ewing shook his head.

“The O’Brien trophy is a nicer trophy,” Ewing said, referring to the gold basketball awarded the winner of the NBA championship.

“I would give anything — anything — to have been a part of the team that brought that trophy to New York. My teammates and I, we gave an awful lot of blood trying.”

He smiled.

“I know this,” he said. “We never stopped trying. Ever.”

Patrick Ewing played on two gold-medal winning Olympic basketball teams (1984, 1992) and his number 33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003. Picture: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

The Knicks made two NBA Finals in the 15 seasons Ewing spent in New York.

They fell a game shy of the trophy in 1994.

Five years later, cruelly, Ewing blew out his Achilles in the Eastern Conference finals, famously offered a pep talk and solemnly said: “Go get me my ring.” But without Ewing, facing David Robinson and Tim Duncan, that wasn’t going to happen.

What we are left with is the memory of an all-time player who played on 11 All-Star teams, who made All-NBA teams seven times, who was the Rookie of the Year in 1986 and whose name dominates the Knicks record books.

Oh, and also this: When he arrived at MSG, the Knicks were a dead franchise. The championship banners were gathering dust. The Knicks were lucky to attract 10,000 fans to the Garden.

Ewing changed everything.

The week the Knicks won the first draft lottery in 1985, the telephones at MSG’s ticket offices shut down from so many season-ticket inquiries.

Around Ewing, the Knicks not only became relevant again, they became the city’s darlings, even in an era when the Yankees started winning the World Series again.

The Knicks made two NBA Finals in the 15 seasons Patrick Ewing spent in New York. Picture: Focus on Sport/Getty Images

“People tend to talk about all the things he hasn’t done,” Jeff Van Gundy said late in Ewing’s tenure with the Knicks.

“And I think part of why they do is because it would take so damned long to list all the things he did here. He has been everything anyone ever could have asked him to be.”

Ewing is first in franchise history in games (1,039), minutes (37,586), points (23,665), rebounds (10,759), blocked shots (2,758) and even steals (1,061).

He has more field goals (9,260) and free throws (5,126) than any other Knick. He shot 50.8 per cent.

For his Knicks career, he averaged 22.8 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks, and across 135 playoff games, those averages were 20.6/10.5/2.2.

“Every game we played together,” John Starks said in 2018, “I know the Big Fella left everything he had on the court. Every single game. He inspired us.”

Said Ewing earlier that same year: “If I had it to do over again, I’d wish for the same journey. With only one difference: Once, just once, we’d have won the final game of a damned season.”