COMMENTARY : Ewing and 10 Other Reasons Knicks Will Win

You really pick a player to win the title, as much as you do a team. You pick David Robinson or Charles Barkley. You pick entries: Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, John Stockton and Karl Malone. Or you go with Michael Jordan, just because you always have.

You are looking for someone who will be the Ed O’Bannon of the NBA tournament.

And when I look at it that way, I keep coming back to Patrick Ewing. I watched him play against the Pacers the other night, and his face was O’Bannon’s face against Arkansas. I will go with him and the Knicks to go all the way, one year later than they thought they would. Sometimes you have to bet with your heart.

I was going to delay making this pick, but I have to go get the Mets and Yankees organized.

Two months ago, I could not see the Knicks beating the Orlando Magic four games in the playoffs. But a lot has changed, even more for the Magic than for the Knicks. The Magic has been hit as the Knicks seem ready to hit their stride.

Ewing will not win the MVP award, because he never does. Maybe someone else has been more valuable to his team since the first week of November. But since the end of December, from the time the Knicks were 12-12, Ewing’s team is 40-14, and he has been a giant, just about every night. He is a great player having his greatest season. He is better this year than he was last year.

If you say the Knicks are going to win, you buy into two theories: They will play their best from now until the finish, and the Magic has come back to the field.

I buy big into both--maybe because I want to. Here are other ways the Knicks can win the whole thing:

1. When they put the money on the floor, Charles Oakley will go down there after it.

Last season, Oakley’s basketball floor seemed to include the first couple of rows of the stands, and his skills included body-surfing all over the court at Madison Square Garden.

Oakley will show up on April 27, when the playoffs begin. Maybe just because he has to. He doesn’t have to be the Knicks’ MVP. He never was the Knicks’ MVP. He just has to go back to riding shotgun for Patrick.

2. Hubert Davis will make a lot of the shots John Starks missed last May and June.

Davis is one of the best shooters in the league. He was lost at the beginning of the season, the way most of the Knicks were. Now he is found.

3. Derek Harper will play the last two months of the season the way he played the first two months of the season.

It has already started. Maybe it is because Pat Riley is letting Greg Anthony help Harper. It doesn’t even matter what took Riley so long.

4. Anthony Mason is not just playing for a title, he is trying to win his own free-agent lottery.

Mason has played like a champion since he came back from his suspension. He has been the second-best player on the team lately. This continues, same as Ewing’s play continues. Mason can have the kind of playoff spring Oakley had.

5. Anthony Bonner gets into the game this time.

There are a lot of Knick fans who will always wonder how last year’s NBA finals would have gone if Bonner had been allowed to have some innings against Carl Herrera.

6. Pat Riley also has saved his best for last.

There was a time a month ago when Riley, playing for a new contract of his own, started to act like another thin-skinned baby. Since then, he has coached brilliantly. Maybe this is the playoff spring when the winner within Riley finally gets out.

7. The Magic has not just been hit lately, it has been rocked. Shaq and friends lost again on the road Saturday, this time to Glen Rice.

The wisdom about something like this always comes from Mike Tyson: “Everybody has a plan till they get hit.” Hardaway has been sick. Shaq missed 9 of 11 free throws down the stretch against Boston the other night. The whole team has stopped guarding people.

8. I don’t believe the Pacers ever beat the Knicks with everything on the line.

9. Same with the Hornets.

10. Patrick Ewing is not just better than he was a year ago, he is fitter. He didn’t care about the beginning of this season. He wanted his legs at the end. He sure seems to have them.

Sometimes you have to go on faith. Bet with your heart. I will do the same in October with Don Mattingly.