I think often we need to put history in its proper perspective and revisit it obectively.

Ewing is revered and almost universally aclaimed as the greatest Knick Center but the true jest of the article is he peaked by age 27 and then started to decline. He was a shell of his former self and was crafty enough to get another extension and would not accept a lessor role despite his inability to move his last 4 seasons active.

The formula for success for profit was to reach the conferance finals and in hindsight the team was really never as close as we'd like to believe.

Starks and Mason were bone heads and LJ was damaged goods. Harper was on his down side as was doc Rivers. Im not sure Jackson would have excelled as much as he did because the knicks were never allowed to push the ball up until Patrick got there.

Nellie the last few years has been a joke but the man has some impressive years behind him and the reason he was fired was he wanted ewing out and ewing was in his conract year and was going to bolt. Management paniced over losing ewings star power and earning potential. JVG was crowned by Ewing as the new coach. Nellie was right and the knick fortunes might have forever changed if we either let him walk or did a trade in 1996 and gotton good value for him.

No, ewing never had his side kick but in a way he really never wanted one either.

I have mad respect for what he did and his work ethic. They were good years and successful ones, but they were what they were.

Take JVG and keep Nellie and insert an asset either signed usuing Ewing's salary or via trade. I know its hard to really thing we can reconstruct trades and signings, but just think about it. We also don't take on Glen Rices bad feet, Luke Longly and Eisley.

Teams that don't wait to retool generally stay relevant much longer. Ownership banked too much Ewings star power. Its pretty evident even on these forums that the emotional attachment was high for him. I have to say back in the day the thought of ewing leaving and knick management not resigning him would not have gone over well for me either.

Nellie wanted Mason gone as he held the ball too long and thought Ewing was also not a good fit.

Its very tough to know for a franchise "when its time to move on" given fan support and wanting to win now. I think San Antionio is looking at this the near future. The key at least is to not reup your star player beyond his ability. If the player wants to continue at the big money you gotta let them go no matter how unpopular it maybe. I think Timmy will know when its time but if he don't then he still gotta go. David Robinson retired with still a good game and the contract ended at the same time.

Yeah, in hindsight, our love for Patrick also hurt the team at the sametime. Im guilty of this also.

knicks1248 wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:I personally look at the facts on the ground. Forget the stats, forget the flaws, forget the selfishness, forget the post game interviews. The only thing I believe in is winning, and we sucked before and after he was here and we competed for Conference championships and titles while he was here. The rest doesn't matter to me. But even with my extreme man love for Ewing I would never place him in the sphere with Jordan and the big time title winners. I don't know anyone who does.

There are so many reason why Ewing did not win a ring, and the supporting cast was by far the leading reason. How Simmons tried to compare the bledsoe situation to ewing is ridiculous. The knicks had no adequate back up. the knicks as a franchise made some of the dumbest moves even when Ewing was here.

Aside from signing Allan Houston and LJ I can't remember anything that the knicks have done correctly in the last 20+ years. MDA and walsh- I think- are very good hire's, but even there plan seems suspect at best.

I wish people would stop killing EWING for not having the necessary pieces around him, like JORDAN, MAGIC,BIRD,HAKEEM, D ROBINSON, Isaiah (those who got rings during ewings career). Each one of those players had a top 50 player riding shotgun.

Agreed. How would Ewing's career have differed if you allowed him to play with Scottie Pippen, Kareem, Mchale, Drexler, Duncan, Dumars............

Ewing was no Jordan. In my view he was no Hakeem either. But I think Simmon's article is way over the top. Plus I don't think Knick fans have glorified views of the guy. If anything I think he's been under appreciated.

skeng wrote:The way Simmons spinned the story made me real sad.. I agree with you guys on the second banana thing.

Sounds to me like Simmons is implying that you're only successful if you win a ring - if so, was Karl Malone and John Stock not successful?

According to Marbury....................If you don't win your a loser!