It’s Tough to Stand Pat, Especially in New York

Fast times in Tabloid World: Oh happy day! Patrick Ewing is back!

Actually, it didn’t turn out to be so happy, preceded as it was by days of rage in the New York press and months of speculation everywhere that the Knicks, who squeezed by the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals without him last spring, didn’t need him to slow them down now.

Subsequent events, such as this season’s 11-9 start, proved otherwise, but the situation has turned toxic, even for the Knicks, who are used to breathing fumes.

Ewing, who tore his left Achilles’ tendon last spring after the team doctor had told him he couldn’t damage it further by playing on it, had a reasonable interest in making sure he didn’t come back too soon this time, practicing two weeks before returning Friday at Madison Square Garden against Philadelphia. (He was 0 for 8 from the field, although he did make seven of eight free throws and grab 10 rebounds in 30 minutes.)

Of course, he did it in his inimitable style, ignoring everyone, which stirred resentment anew. Three days before his return, the New York Daily News quoted an unidentified Knick as saying, “We all want him back because we think we can win this year. But none of us know why he’s acting like such a baby. And it’s almost like everyone in the organization is afraid of him.”

The back page headline in the Daily News screamed, “BIG ‘BABY.’ ”

The same day, the Post countered with, “GET BACK TO WORK!”

Ewing, alienated from his teammates, grieving for waived Herb Williams, his last friend on the roster, finally broke his silence, saying he was willing to work with the young guys, although it wasn’t quite the conciliatory speech Coach Jeff Van Gundy was hoping for.

“I still hear how much I got to change,” Ewing railed to Daily News columnist Mike Lupica. “First, the Knicks were better off without me. That’s what they said in the playoffs. Now I got to change.

“And you know what? I’m tired of it. I’ve been here 15 years and I’ve put my heart and soul into this team. I’ve busted my butt. I’ve played hurt, even times when I probably shouldn’t have played hurt.

“After all that, I’m still hearing the same old stuff. ‘He’s got to give up the ball.’ You think I haven’t? I came into this league shooting 20-plus shots a game. Last year, I was down to what, 15? I’ve given. And I will when I get back. . . . This isn’t about change. It’s about incorporating what I can do into what Latrell [Sprewell] and Allan [Houston] can do and them doing the same, incorporating what they do into my game. But that’s not enough for people.”

Meanwhile, Knick beat writers, frozen out by Ewing for weeks, complained to the NBA office, which fined him $10,000 and the team $25,000.

Not that the writers should have felt excluded. Ewing froze Van Gundy out too. The coach learned his center was coming back from TNT’s John Thompson, Ewing’s college coach, who broke the news during a telecast. Van Gundy went to Ewing the next day and learned it was true, although Ewing denied telling Big John.

However, a glowering Ewing then strode past the writers again. When someone shouted that Jeff had said he was coming back, Ewing snarled, “ . . . what Jeff says!”

The team then fined Ewing $10,000 more for blowing the writers off again.

If Ewing doesn’t hurt himself further, the Knicks should be better. Probably not great, but better. How long that will keep the wolves away, or the Knicks from each others’ throats, remains to be seen.

FACES AND FIGURES

Wouldn’t it be fun, watching someone else go through this? Dennis Rodman told the German magazine, Sport Bild, he has a deal to play with the SuperSonics. “I already had a meeting with [owner] Barry Ackerley and [General Manager] Wally Walker,” Rodman said. “In principle, we have an agreement.” Walker says there has been no meeting, there is no agreement, even in principle, and the team has no interest. Last summer, an agent representing Rodman did call the SuperSonics to suggest his client would like to play there because he could spend more time with his friends in Pearl Jam. The matter never went higher than Walker’s assistant.

Meanwhile, the SuperSonics are struggling, with “center” Horace Grant hurting and Vin Baker as the other “big man.” After the Lakers waxed them by 24, the next team in, the Charlotte Hornets, drilled them by 22. Coach Paul Westphal, asked if there was anything good about the loss to Charlotte, said, “It ended.”

Nor are the comatose Warriors yukking it up. Last week, elder statesman Terry Cummings went off on the franchise’s one young prospect, Antawn Jamison, after he let Seattle’s Ruben Patterson score 16 points in the first half of another loss. “No doubt about it,” Cummings said. “Every game, his guy is scoring on him at will. That’s not me being negative, but he has to figure out a way to keep his man in front of him and stop him.”

John Starks, returning to New York for the first time as a Warrior, went three for 12 from the field. Starks is still remembered for his Game 7 two-for-18 flameout in the 1994 NBA finals, but Van Gundy, then an assistant to coach Pat Riley, says that’s a travesty: “People’s memories are so short. John got hurt about three weeks before the end of the regular season in ’94 and he had [arthroscopic] surgery on his knee. Most guys would have taken six to eight weeks to come back. The guy was back for the first playoff game. He was playing on a bad knee and he helped us get all the way to the sixth game, to ‘the Shot,’ [a 20-footer that Hakeem Olajuwon blocked that would have won the Knicks the title] and then he had a bad seventh game. If John Starks would have been like most NBA players and taken eight weeks to come back, ’94 would have been over in the first or second round.”

The Suns’ attempt to get Oliver Miller in shape seems to be stalling out, as usual, around the 300-pound mark. “His attitude has been great,” Coach Danny Ainge said. “He’s coachable. He’s saying all the right things. [But] he hasn’t convinced me. You’re not going to convince me completely if you’re 25 pounds overweight.” Says Miller, “If I can, I’ll get there. But it takes time.” He has been in the league eight seasons, so don’t hold your breath.

Salary-cap rules make an Antoine Walker-Theo Ratliff deal impossible, but 76er Coach Larry Brown acknowledged that each team prizes the other’s player. In other words, they’d both like to do it but can’t. Boston people charged that trade stories in the papers sprang from a deliberate leak by the 76ers--with suspicion centering on Rick Pitino’s former protege, John Calipari, a 76er assistant. “I had a call asking if I did it,” Calipari said. “I said, ‘Me? I don’t deal with those things.’ ”

Stephon Marbury, asked by Sport magazine if he’d demanded a trade for economic reasons: “Definitely. It was at the point where I wasn’t getting any endorsements and I couldn’t deal with it. I used to ask [Minnesota General Manager Kevin] McHale, ‘Man, how come we ain’t never on national TV?’ He’d say, ‘Well, we’ve got to win.’ Then we won and we still weren’t on TV. I want that exposure. I want to play where the rewards are.” The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Steve Aschburner notes Marbury now plays in East Rutherford, N.J., in one of the league’s oldest arenas. He has no sneaker contract. The Nets appear on NBC, TNT or TBS twice this season, to the Timberwolves’ 10.

Shawn Kemp, on Raptor phenom Vince Carter: “He’s probably the most exciting individual in basketball right now. He’s a human highlight film. He’s a joy to watch. . . . I knew eventually he’d get his game there, but it really seems like he worked on his jump shot--taking a step back and fading away. He’s got a well-rounded offensive game right now. He knows he’s not going to be able to jump like that forever, so with the jump shot, he’ll be able to maintain his longevity and his career.”

Piston Coach Alvin Gentry, on teams lining up for Grant Hill: “Chicago thinks they are going to get him, San Antonio thinks they are going to get him. Chicago thinks they are going to get Grant and Tim Duncan--yeah and I’m getting a Ferrari for Christmas.”