(NBA) Patrick Ewing

Unread post by **Qdawg** » January 22nd, 2007, 2:42 am

Patrick Ewing

Patrick Aloysius Ewing (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-born American former NBA player. He played most of his career with the New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic.

Early life:

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ewing was 12 years old when he arrived in the United States with his family, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin, a public high school. He went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. Ewing is widely recognized as one of the best college basketball players of his era; he helped his Georgetown Hoyas reach the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Final in 1982, 1984 and 1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, winning the championship in 1984.

NBA career:

Because Ewing was considered such a prize prospect and in order to prevent teams from tanking games in order to secure a better chance of obtaining Ewing's services, the NBA introduced a Draft Lottery, which gave each of the 7 teams not in the playoffs an equal chance of securing the first overall pick, a process that was won by the New York Knicks, who selected Ewing first overall in the 1985 NBA Draft.

Although injuries marred his first year in the league, he was named NBA Rookie of the Year by averaging 20 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. Very soon, he became one of the premier centers in the league. Ewing was an eleven time NBA All-Star, was named to the All-NBA First Team once, to the All-NBA Second Team six times and to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team three times. He was a member of the original Dream Team at the 1992 Olympic Games, winning a second gold medal. In 1996, he was also given the honor of being named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.

In 1993, it finally seemed the Knicks were on their way to the NBA Finals when they took a 2-0 lead over Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. However, the Bulls stunned Ewing as they won the next 4 games of the series. It was just one more ringless season Ewing had to deal with, despite the fact that the Knicks had the best record in the Eastern Conference with 62 wins and just 20 losses. He was a key contributor to the Knicks' run to the Finals in 1994, in which the Knicks lost in the final seconds of games 6 and 7 to Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets. The Knicks took Game 2 in Houston, but couldn't hold court at home, as they dropped Game 3 at the Garden. However, they won the next two games, and headed back to Houston up 3 games to 2. But a John Starks blunder, not passing at the end of game 6, and a terrible performance by Starks in game 7 was too much for the Knicks to overcome. Patrick Ewing made the most of his appearance by setting a record for most blocked shots in a Finals series (later broken by Shaquille O'Neal). 1994 was the first year Patrick Ewing's Knicks faced a Bulls team without the Scottie Pippen-Michael Jordan duo and Scottie Pippen saw how hard it was to play without superstars (as Ewing had to his whole career) when Ewing's Knicks defeated Pippen's Bulls in 7 games in the Eastern Conference Finals. The following year, a potentially game-tying three-foot finger roll attempt by Ewing rimmed out of the basket in the dwindling seconds of game 7 against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Given this opportunity, Ewing would usually simply slam dunk the ball, but the fact that the clock was winding down forced Ewing to get off a quick shot. In 1997 Patrick Ewing suffered a potentially career ending wrist injury but worked hard to make an improbable return during the playoffs.(The Knicks returned to the NBA Finals in 1999, but Ewing missed the latter part of their playoff run due to an achilles injury, which contributed to their 4-1 loss to the taller Spurs). In 2000, he left the Knicks, being traded to the Seattle SuperSonics. In the trade, the Knicks sent Ewing to Seattle and Chris Dudley to the Suns, and received Glen Rice, Luc Longley, Travis Knight, Vladimir Stepania, Lazaro Borrell, Vernon Maxwell, two first-round draft picks (from the Los Angeles Lakers and Seattle) and two second-round draft picks from Seattle. This is considered by many to being a major step in the downfall of the relative success of the Knicks. After a year with the Sonics and another with the Orlando Magic, he announced his retirement on September 18, 2002. That season, he took a job as an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards.

On February 28, 2003 Patrick Ewing's jersey with number 33 was retired in a large ceremony at Madison Square Garden. Ewing continues to be considered one of the New York Knicks' finest players of all time, as well as one of the greatest in NBA history. Knicks rivalries against the Bulls, Pacers, and Heat, in which Ewing was a centerpiece, were some of the most intense of the decade. In Patrick Ewing's last year with the Knicks, he had a game winning dunk over Alonzo Mourning in game 7 of the second round of the play-offs to lead the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Semi Finals. It was a great finish to the Knicks-Heat rivalry during the Ewing years. On August 29, 2006, Patrick Ewing resigned as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets to spend time with his family.

As an NBA player, Ewing was renowned for his shotblocking ability, rebounding skills, thunderous dunks, and accurate mid-range jumpshot.

Ewing will be eligible for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

NBA statistics:

In 1999, Ewing became the 10th player in NBA history to record 22,000 points and 10,000 rebounds.

In 1993 led the NBA with 789 defensive rebounds. He was top ten in field goal percentage 8 times, top ten in rebounds per game as well as total rebounds 8 times, top ten in points, as well as points per game 8 times, and top ten in blocks per game for 13 years.

Games: 1,183
Points: 24,815
PPG: 21.0
RPG: 9.8
STL: 1,136
APG: 1.9
Blk: 2,894
FG%: .504
FT%: .740

Honors:
Rookie of the Year (1986)
All-NBA First Team (1990)
All-NBA Second Team (1988, '89, '91, '92, '93, '97)
NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1988, '89, '92)
11-time All-Star; One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
Two-time Olympic gold medalist (1984, '92)
NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player (1984)
Naismith College Player of the Year in (1985).

Unread post by **se11** » January 22nd, 2007, 10:15 am

where'd you get that summary of te player? thjats really good.

Unread post by **creativemind** » January 22nd, 2007, 12:48 pm

I played against Patrick in a summer league tournament called the 'Boston Shootout'. It was the summer of 1980 and I was playing for a team from Philly team called "Mrs. Paul's Pals". He played against a guy from my high school team named Tony Costner, whose son Brandon now plays for NC State. Tony was 6'10" and Patrick was 7'00", but he owned Tony like he was 5'6". Tony was my boy, but that shit was REEEAAAALLL ugly!!!

Black Top · Unread post by **Black Top** » January 22nd, 2007, 1:14 pm

good ol ewing...... couldn't stop his turn around baseline jay

Y.g. Kappa Don · Unread post by **Y.g. Kappa Don** » February 7th, 2007, 1:41 pm

Black Top wrote:good ol ewing...... couldn't stop his turn around baseline jay

Yeah that nigga could ball but boy was he supa ugly i told 1 of my homiez his girl look like patrick ewing witta mini skirt on just ta fu*k with him but he hurt now so we aint friendz no mo. But yeah patrick ewing was 1 of my favorite center'z real raw balla

Bearfan · Unread post by **Bearfan** » February 7th, 2007, 2:01 pm

Patrick had one chance for a ring, and that's when MJ had came back the second time I think when Orlando beat us, but Houston took the Knicks down in that finals.Patrick played in the wrong era in the NBA, but he's a Hall Of Famer. You can't blame him for his team losing to His Airness so many times.

Unread post by **$outhPhillypuppet** » February 7th, 2007, 2:05 pm

Alot of great players didnt get rings cuz of MJ.