When the four-team mega-trade that would have sent Patrick Ewing packing and brought Vin Baker and Glen Rice to Madison Square Garden collapsed under its own weight (a.k.a. the second thoughts of Detroit), the hopes of New Yorkers came crashing back to harsh reality. Even the subsequent trade rumors that would have netted the Knicks considerably less in return ended up to be smoke and mirrors. To the various Ewing bashers whose celebrations turned out to be very short lived, the big fella is to the Knickerbockers like gum is to the sole of one’s sneaker on a hot summer day. It appears that Ewing will continue to dress in blue and orange, and NY fans will continue to live and die by his makes and misses.
Bob Knight and Patrick Ewing both worked under a policy of zero tolerance, though for entirely different reasons. Knight forced the hand of his employers with a history of misbehavior that blemished his considerable success. The president of Indiana University was unwilling to accept any more embarrassing headlines caused by Knight’s actions and told him as much. The coaching icon can claim that he got a raw deal if he so chooses, and he most certainly will, but he cannot say that he was not forewarned. As for Ewing’s scenario, Knicks management is simply loathe to settle for more seasons of a slow moving offense once again falling short of its ultimate goal, and their veteran center (deservedly or not) has come to be their standard scapegoat.
As most reasonable people expected from the moment Bob Knight’s tenuous terms of employment were defined earlier this year, he eventually provided a straw for the camel’s back. As most New York fans have come to learn, lofty expectations guarantee nothing but heartbreak when they aren’t reached.
Perhaps no other athlete has joined a team with as much fanfare as Patrick Ewing when he was selected as the Knicks’ number one pick in the NBA’s first draft lottery. The Hoya destroyer was supposed to lead New York to pro basketball’s promised land. During his long run, the Knicks have managed on a couple of occasions to get an up close and personal look at Nirvana, only to be turned away by the likes of Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson and Tim Duncan. Ewings’ career stats place him in the company of these fellow giants. They proclaim his as one of the NBA’s fifty greatest ever and make him a future lock for the Hall of Fame. But as long as his fingers remain ringless, he will be remembered (particularly in his own backyard) for what he failed to accomplish rather than for the many milestones he did reach. Such is the price of admission into the pantheon of sports heroes in our nation’s glitziest metropolis. Dave Winfied was a consistently solid performer, the consummate professional, but Reggie Jackson is the man who delivered when it counted. No other Jets quarterback has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as the revered Joe Namath, because only Joe got to trot off the field with his # 1 finger in the air after winning the big one. Patrick Ewing may be the owner of most Knicks records, but he has yet to supplant the memory of Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier, because those are the players who gave New York fans the one and only thing that they demand. For the athlete who wants to come up short yet still be beloved, his best bet is to play someplace like Utah or to be named Dan Marino. In New York, it’s championship or bust.
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