Pitino, Ewing Are Making Knicks Winners

In New York, style is everything. Certainly that is the case with Patrick Ewing and the Knicks.

Ewing was drafted by the Knicks in 1985, but it seems he has only just arrived.

The ho-hum Knicks have been transformed into the rah-rah Knicks by Coach Rick Pitino. After taking Providence to the 1987 NCAA Final Four, Pitino took his running, pressing style of play with him to New York.

Aside from Knicks fans, the prime beneficiary of this stylish switch has been one Patrick Ewing, who according to Pitino can do almost anything--except, perhaps, leap over skyscrapers in a single bound.

“He’s doing everything for us,” says Pitino. “Scoring, forcing movement away from him. He’s rebounding better, staying down on head fakes, passing. I think Patrick Ewing can be mentioned in the same breath with Jordan, Bird and Magic.”

Going into Friday night’s game against the Washington Bullets in Baltimore, Ewing was averaging 21.3 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.38 blocks. He was also shooting 55% from the field and was averaging 2.3 assists, but had handed out 21 assists in his last six games, a 3.5 average.

“The style Coach Pitino brought here is the same as what we did at Georgetown,” says Ewing. “We run and we press. I’m a running center. I can beat any center down the floor.”

The transformation of the Knicks began last season, Pitino’s first. After three consecutive years at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, the Knicks finished third in 1987-88 and made the playoffs with a 38-44 record.

Before Pitino arrived, opposing teams were able to push around the 7-foot, 240-pound center. They would double- and triple-team, knock him to the floor, bruise him, force him to the sidelines for repair. In his first two years in the NBA, Ewing was an easy target on a Knick team that had little else going for it.

“In those earlier years, the Knicks relied on him, but there was too much pressure,” says Bullets Coach Wes Unseld. “Not only the pressure he put on himself and the pressure he felt from his own team, but from other teams. They’d double-team him inside, because everyone knew the outside jumper was no worry.”

But those days are gone.

Now, Ewing is still the cornerstone, but he is not alone. In the starting lineup are guards Mark Jackson and Gerald Wilkins and forwards Charles Oakley and Johnny Newman.

The only thing the NBA’s Atlantic Division leaders seemed to need was more scoring production at small forward. That problem evidently has been solved with Thursday’s acquisition of Portland’s Kiki Vandeweghe in exchange for a first-round draft choice in 1989.

With Jackson at point guard, the Knicks’ ball-handling is in good hands. With the arrival of Oakley--a bruising 6-9, 245-pounder who came from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for center Bill Cartwright--Ewing is at last free to do what it is he does best: run the floor, score, block shots and work the inside on defense.

“I love playing alongside him,” says Oakley. “The big guy is The Man.”

“When Oakley went to the Knicks,” says Bullet assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik, “there was a lot of doubt about whether he’d fit in. That question doesn’t exist anymore. Oakley is a tremendous athlete and he causes a lot of problems for opponents with his outstanding rebounding. You’ve got to concentrate on Oakley. He plays the high post and that means you can’t double-team Patrick and rotate, because you need a big body on Oakley, and that hurts the rotation.

“And one-on-one, Patrick Ewing is going to kill you.”

Bullets forward Charlie Jones says, “One guy can’t defend him. Patrick is real tough. He’s strong and likes the low post position.”

Houston center Akeem Olajuwon spent Tuesday night trying to move Ewing out of position. The Knicks won, 120-115, and Olajuwon had all he wanted from Ewing.

“With him, you can never relax,” Olajuwon says. “You play him physical because you have to. But even with your body on him, he’s still strong enough to get off his shot anyway.”

Then there is Ewing’s defense. The Knicks’ pressing style forces every player on the opposing team to handle the ball.

“On most teams, it’s one or two guys at most who you want to put the ball on the floor,” says Bzdelik. “When they press, everyone has to. It’s very difficult. And then, if you beat it by taking the ball right at them, there is Ewing under the basket, ready to block a shot. You have to be pretty talented to score on him. Having him back there allows the Knicks to gamble and trap you hard, because they know he’s always there.”

“Patrick is our go-to guy,” says guard Mark Jackson, a former St. John’s player who used to play against Ewing in Big East wars. “Everyone understands that. He’s our leader. Without him, we go nowhere.”