COMMENTARY : A Question About Knick’s Pat Ewing: What Is He Seeking?

If Patrick Ewing wants out of New York, then let him stand up and say so. Let him step up to a microphone and announce: “I’ve put in six years with this franchise, and in that time I’ve had six different coaches and four different general managers, and we haven’t won a damn thing, and now we have to rebuild again. I’ll be 29 years old next week. I don’t have time to rebuild again. So please trade me.”

Nobody would begrudge Ewing that.

But don’t try to con people with this subterfuge “freedom issue,” which is the phrase crusading agent David Falk has used as he jostles to get Ewing declared a free agent in time for Christmas shopping.

Freedom from what exactly? The remaining four years on his original 10-year contract at $3.1 million a year? Or the new six-year, $32 million deal the Knicks offered, and Ewing rejected!

This is servitude?

We should all be so lucky.

The heart of Falk’s claim is that the Knicks have triggered the innovative escape clause in Ewing’s contract by letting him slip below the fourth-highest-paid player in the NBA. Falk says Ewing is now No. 6 on the list, and thereby entitled to become a free agent. This ought to be an unambiguous point to settle. I’m always for freedom when a player’s rights are violated, but this issue is about cash, not the reserve clause.

It’s insulting to anyone with a brain to seize this opportunity to cry freedom. Let’s not turn this into Curt Flood, because even if Ewing’s petition is rejected by the NBA arbitrator, the worst that will happen to him is that the Knicks will continue to pay him $3.1 million a year.

Meanwhile, the dust-up has driven a bitter wedge between Ewing and Knicks fans. Falk may have been a wizard to write the clause into Ewing’s contract, but the fallout has been a public-relations disaster. Ewing’s good name has been stained in the city where he’s currently employed.

Call me a cynic, but I think this whole affair is less about freedom and a lot more about leverage. Two agents and one GM I spoke with this week dismissed it as a ploy to get Ewing more muscle and more money; all three, incidentally, believe that when all is said and done, Ewing will wind up with the Knicks.

Let’s say the arbitrator rules for the Knicks. They’re likely to give Ewing at least $5.4 million a year, because what good is Ewing’s body without his soul? If they are convinced he wants out -- or persuaded there has been irreparable harm to Ewing’s contentment in New York -- they’ll trade him. And to placate him, his new team will undoubtedly kick him up from $3.1 million.

More interesting are the possibilities if the arbitrator rules for Ewing. As a restricted free agent this coming season, Ewing’s movement is unlikely, for the Knicks retain the right to match any team’s offer sheet. Should Ewing truly want out, he’ll protect his option of unrestricted free agency one season hence by agreeing to play this time for the Knicks at a guaranteed 125 percent of his last year’s salary.

Because his contract was front-loaded, Ewing made more than $4 million last season, so for 1991-92 he would make no less than $5.3 million. (For you accountants, that is an immediate $2.2 million net gain over the $3.1 million he’s due to receive under his original Knicks contract, not to mention the possible bonanza beginning in 1992-93.)

Here’s where the fun starts. At the end of this season, Ewing would become totally free to make his own deal. As it stands now no team can fit Ewing under its salary cap. But given a full year to maneuver, a few might try to trade off half of their players to make room for Ewing -- at, say, $6 million or $7 million a year. (One potential problem is that by stripping your team to get Ewing, you end up with a dilemma similar to the Knicks’: one great player, and four guys from a muffler shop. Ewing’s Knicks made the playoffs in but three of his six seasons, and never reached the conference final.) Fearing that, the Knicks might make an even more humongous offer than they have already. The Knicks can do that, since the cap doesn’t apply when you’re re-signing your own player. Ewing could trade his freedom and settle for being filthy rich.

What team wouldn’t want Ewing? Pat Riley said on TV that anybody could win a title with Patrick Ewing. Don Nelson probably thinks Ewing could win one for him at Golden State. The Bullets have to think they could too.

If Ewing is set free, perhaps what we’ll find out is how badly he burns to win a title. He hasn’t come close in New York, and he’s unlikely to get much closer there anytime soon. If he longs to win, he’s better off going to a team that’s one great big man away, like the Warriors, the 76ers, or Portland. Ewing could go to Chicago and win for the next five years.

But these teams already pay a lot of players a lot of money. They couldn’t pay Ewing $5 million or $6 million a year and stay under the cap. So Ewing might have to take a salary cut to go to a contender. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, who make so much money in endorsement deals anyway, have modulated their salaries to win titles. Would Ewing do the same? Spurning the Knicks’ $32 million offer gave a hint he might.

There’s also the possibility he could remain with the Knicks, and take the moral high ground by saying he was happy to get an opportunity to test the free-agent water, but, after a year of playing for Pat Riley, he grew comfortable and wanted to stay in New York; no hard feelings, he was only acting on principle, and hum a few bars from “I Love New York.”

There could be so many options open to Ewing.

If only he’d tell us what he means.