Ewing-Olajuwon: Matchup for Ages : Game 1: Ten years ago, these players were at center stage in the NCAA basketball final in Seattle.

They have met before, this Patrick Ewing and this Hakeem Olajuwon. Also, Jupiter aligned with Mars and King Kong met Godzilla.

“It’ll be like the Rockies against the Alps,” predicted Don Donoher, coach of Dayton University, a victim.

He didn’t specify which was which; we do know the Lord alps those who alp themselves.

“I would pay for a ticket to see Akeem against Ewing, if I could get one,” said Anthony Teachey of Wake Forest, another victim.

That was back before Olajuwon decided to spell his name with an H, which meant heck for people who publish record books as well as to anyone assigned to play him.

It was in the spring of 1984 that Olajuwon and Ewing met at the summit for the first and only other time. It was the NCAA final at the Kingdome in Seattle. It was anticipated with sucked-in breath, 7-footer against 7-footer much as it is for the NBA finals beginning Wednesday night at the Summit with a capital S.

Two big big men. You can hear the earth shudder under their footsteps. College basketball hadn’t had a confrontation of post men like them since George Mikan and Bob Kurland in the 1940s.

And what do Olajuwon and Ewing remember of their first confrontation?

“I remember that we lost,” Olajuwon said Tuesday.

“Just the fact that we won it,” Ewing said Tuesday.

It was a typical response from either or both. Actually, the event was more than that, especially in anticipation. Olajuwon was the big man from Nigeria who’d played handball and soccer and never had sneakers big enough until he came to the University of Houston. As a sophomore the thought of ice cream made him laugh. Ewing came from the island of Jamaica in time to play basketball in high school before going on to Georgetown. He was more polished, doing more things reflexively than Olajuwon, whose raw athletic talent simply glowed.

“He couldn’t have been too raw, because he was the first pick,” Ewing recalled. That was in 1984. Ewing was the first pick the next year.

Their meeting had background. Olajuwon had been an object of some ridicule as a freshman, he knew so little basketball. By the time he was finished at Houston, he had been to the title game twice and the semifinals once. And lost all three. He has not yet won a championship anywhere.

Ewing played in the NCAA championship game three times and won once. It is his only championship. “He has made us acutely aware of that,” Knicks General Manager Dave Checketts notes.

Georgetown beat Houston, 85-74. The great man-against-man that was expected turned out, as if often does, less than expected. The giants largely canceled each other. The stars of the game were Georgetown freshmen Michael Graham, whose glare could have made small children cry, and Reggie Williams, who was named the MVP.

In the post-game television interviews, neither could speak a complete sentence. And Olajuwon wept.

Remember that Olajuwon was under the basket thunderstruck the year before when Lorenzo Charles made his last-instant dunk for North Carolina State to beat Houston. The year before that, Michael Jordan had stolen a pass with seconds to play as North Carolina beat Georgetown for the title.

Ewing was a leadership figure for Georgetown, as much as John Thompson would permit any player to be a leadership figure. In an early round, Georgetown was on the brink, and Thompson went to Ewing at halftime and said, “Hey, let’s stay in (the tournament) a while. Take over the game.”

And Ewing took the expression for his own. During the game and subsequent games, he would say, “I don’t want to go home yet.”

The morning of the game, Ewing asked Thompson how he was feeling. Thompson said he felt terrible. “He told me not to feel terrible because we were going to be national champions,” Thompson said.

If anyone wants to see a parallel between that and what Ewing has been saying to the Knicks, go right ahead.

Ewing was such a dominating college player. “It’s frightening,” said Roosevelt Chapman of Dayton. “He’s like an octopus; hands all over.”

In the final, if there was a key moment in their struggle, it was at 16-16. Olajuwon rebounded and had the ball 3 feet from the basket. He faked; Ewing never moved. He went up and Ewing went with him. The little shot rolled off the rim. It was the last time Houston had a tie. Ewing had shown himself.

Olajuwon still didn’t know what to show. In the semifinal overtime victory, Houston was killing the clock and Olajuwon took two ill-advised shots. “There are probably 25,000 other American players who would have known to throw the ball out,” Houston Coach Guy Lewis said.

In the final, Olajuwon made six of nine shots for 15 points and had nine rebounds. Ewing made 4 of 8 for 10 points and had nine rebounds.

“We’re both 31 now,” Ewing said. “Older, wiser and smarter.”

Both of them appear to be full of the thought of each other. “If you win a championship,” Olajuwon said, “you truly win a championship.”