NO SAINT KNICK

The headline I hope to see for Patrick the day he wears that ring is “FINALLY.”

--Then-Knick Coach Pat Riley in 1994

*

Unfortunately for all concerned, that wasn’t quite how it turned out.

Patrick Ewing never won an NBA title or got a ring, and when it looked as if he was finally leaving New York last summer--five years after Riley--the screaming headline across the back page of the New York Post was instead:

“GOOD RIDDANCE”

This has been some bittersweet saga for Ewing, the Knicks’ all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks, games, minutes and heartbreak, who’s now, at 38, a Seattle SuperSonic and in New York only an unhappy memory.

How do they miss him in Gotham?

Let them count the ways they don’t.

“Ewing was the most unsatisfying of superstars, grim and stubborn, getting little joy from his work, giving none,” wrote Jay Lovinger, a former managing editor of Life and self-described Knick fan, for ESPN.

” . . . His lack of grace under pressure was one of the few things about Ewing that the average person could relate to. No, the problem was this: He and his teammates were the black hole of pro basketball, sucking all the life, beauty and pleasure out of the game.”

Says David Halberstam, the Manhattan-based Pulitzer Prize winner who has written several books about basketball:

“He stayed three or four years too long. I don’t know if you could say it’s sad. The word ‘tragic’ hardly applies to someone making $17 million and I suppose he’ll get into the Hall of Fame, whatever that means.

“There’s a certain sadness to the career. He stayed too long. He had too many coaches, too much turnover. He never grew as a player. I think the game is hard for him.”

Nevertheless, a superstar is what Ewing was, even if his repertoire could have been deeper, his court sense more acute and, most of all, his luck better.

After all the injuries that cost him 98 games the last three seasons, he still has career averages of 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks and a shooting percentage of 50.7. The Knicks, who weren’t a playoff team when he arrived in 1985, made it his last 13 seasons, reaching the East finals three times and the NBA finals twice.

Of course, they never won a title, which is what Ewing is chiefly remembered for in New York. Karl Malone and John Stockton are icons in Utah. Charles Barkley is America’s guest, although all together, they won as many as Ewing, but it’s Patrick, alone, who’s reviled.

Thus, it’s not surprising Ewing’s most steadfast defenders are his peers.

Says Shaquille O’Neal, a bitter rival when they were in the East, “New York dishonored him greatly. I don’t think he’ll say it, but they did. . . .

“It was a sad day for me when he got traded. I never thought I’d see my idol in another uniform. When I was coming up, I always wanted a Patrick Ewing New York jersey and Patrick Ewing orange-and-blue Adidas . . . but they didn’t make my size. He’s always been my idol.”

Says Reggie Miller, a bitter rival after all those Pacer-Knick showdowns: “I definitely feel for what he’s gone through, physically, mentally, the abuse that he’s gone through in New York. He’s simply, and I go way back, I believe he’s the greatest New York Knick to ever put on a uniform. And I think the numbers will indicate that when it’s all said and done. . . .

“Here’s a guy who played hurt, who continues to play hurt. He’s a warrior, a phenomenal teammate with a tremendous heart. . . . His career speaks for itself. It’s just an honor to know him and compete against him.”

Says Orlando Coach Doc Rivers, a former Knick teammate: “Of all the guys I’ve ever played with, he’s the guy I feel the worst for.

“Most of the guys, you don’t feel bad for. An NBA athlete, you feel great for. Patrick Ewing might be the only guy you don’t feel great for. The heat he takes, in a city that is usually a very knowledgeable city--for whatever reason, they don’t accept Patrick Ewing.”

In a lot of great careers, everything comes together. This one, however stellar, isn’t one of those.

The Superstar in the Bubble

The great thing about him--the real beauty of Patrick--is that he’s always been able to cope with people’s impressions and perceptions of him, no matter how bad the things they’re saying are. He has never marched to the beat of what other people think about him. Never.

--John Thompson,

Ewing’s coach at Georgetown,

to the Indianapolis Star

Of course, it might have been better, if he had learned to march just a little.

Born in Jamaica, Ewing moved to Boston when he was 11. He was a late starter in basketball but a quick learner and a hard worker.

“I first remember Patrick when he first came and started school as a junior high school student,” says St. John’s Mike Jarvis, who coached him in high school. “He was then, and still is now, just a special person, has always worked unbelievably hard. I know as a youngster, his work ethic was second to none and he got better every single day.”

Ewing was withdrawn, for good reason. He was taunted for his height, his skinny physique, his prominent jaw, his island accent. Even as his game expanded--in 1980, he was the first prep invited to try out for the Olympic team--so did the problems.

The recruiting war for him was furious. Ewing was an average student, but Jarvis drafted a list of requirements for interested colleges, including untimed tests and the right to tape-record lectures. After that, Ewing would be taunted by chants of “Patrick can’t read,” and worse, some of it racist.

At Georgetown, Thompson made him off-limits to the press as a freshman, the start of what was called “Hoya Paranoia.” Ewing became a beautiful butterfly but never fully emerged from that cocoon.

Says Jarvis, “I’m not going to comment about Georgetown and being well-served.”

Ewing might have been the most underrated nice guy in the NBA, but who knew? In New York, the media center of the globe, he kept the press at arm’s length. In 1994, when he was at his zenith, Sports Illustrated assigned a feature on him, which would have been flattering. Ewing refused to sit for an interview. That, as much as his career, became the focus of the piece.

He was stubborn. The tabloid press knew if they asked the right way, he’d “guarantee” victory, a popular move in New York for 30 years after the Jets’ Joe Namath had actually delivered on one, and they’d get a big fat headline out of it, annually as it turned out.

Ewing was rigid to the point of absurdity. Last season, while on the injured list, he was busted in the press for refusing to sign an autograph because it was before a game, even though he wasn’t suiting up.

Of course, winning is the answer to anything, but that was a long time coming.

The Knicks were a 24-58 team when Ewing arrived in 1985, the grand prize in the NBA’s first lottery, which raised a lot of eyebrows in the hinterlands.

Unfortunately, with Ewing averaging 20 points as a rookie, they fell to 23 wins, starting the procession of six coaches--Hubie Brown, Bob Hill, Rick Pitino, Stu Jackson, John MacLeod--in his first six years.

Riley’s arrival turned them into contenders, but an insurmountable problem remained: Michael Jordan and the Bulls, who took particular delight in thwarting their bigger-city cousins, ended their seasons from 1990-93.

With Jordan gone in 1994, Riley whipped the Knicks through a torturous 25-game playoff season, the longest ever, going seven games in each of the last three series. However, Ewing was outplayed by Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon in the finals and the Knicks fell once more.

Not that Patrick made himself any sympathetic figure in the process.

“It means a lot,” he said before Game 7. “I’m tired of answering . . . Hey, you guys, I’m answering the same questions over and over again. It means a lot. It’s been a long time coming. Just have to come out and get the job done on Wednesday. Thanks, folks.”

And he walked off, 12 minutes into a 30-minute media session, or just about on schedule for him.

That day, June, 21, 1994, was as good as it got for him in New York too.

Sonic Boom and Bust

He wanted to finish out his career there. . . . They pushed him to the side, they criticized him--not just the media, not just the fans, but the organization didn’t back him. . . .

It’s upsetting to think he would have to go through that with an organization that he put his heart and soul into.

--Miami’s Alonzo Mourning

Things change.

Ewing, in a SuperSonics’ green traveling uniform, sits in Staples Center in his first non-Knick exhibition season, brightening at the sight of a Newsday writer who covered him on the Knick beat. He asks for pictures of the writer’s new child and looks through them enthusiastically.

Either there has been a major disconnect, or this is some overrated villain.

Things with the Knicks went over the falls in a barrel. Riley left. Ewing rebelled at the adjustments suggested by Don Nelson, who was fired in half a season. Injuries shortened Ewing’s last three seasons, forcing him into long rehab stints.

Meanwhile, with all the other Riley guys gone, his new teammates lobbied for his departure so they could run more.

“I think Pat knew how we felt,” Larry Johnson said last fall. “Some players, myself included, probably would have wanted to see how we would do without Patrick on the floor. That’s not to say we didn’t want Patrick on the team.

“But we wanted to see how we could play against Indiana in that last game with a quicker team, especially if Patrick was not 100%.”

It rolls off Ewing’s back, at least for the record.

He won’t rap the Knick players, the organization, the fans or the press. New York, he says, is a “special place.”

“I was there for 15 years,” he says. “You’re somewhere for 15 years, you know, it’s hard to leave. You have a lot of sentimental things that happened there, but it was time to go. . . . They’re happy with what they’ve got and I’m happy with where I am. Just gotta move on. . . .

“I mean, this is business. It’s a business and I have no hard feelings against anybody in New York, and hopefully they feel the same way about me and we move on and try to win a championship here.”

That part hasn’t changed. Oh-for-15-years in the title department, Ewing is still focused on that elusive prize. When the SuperSonics started 2-6 amid the turmoil that claimed Coach Paul Westphal’s job, Ewing insisted they had played well enough to be 8-0.

At 38, he’s a far cry from his zenith. In his first game against the Knicks, he was outscored, 20-10, and outrebounded, 17-9, by young Marcus Camby.

“He’s just a consistent player,” Westphal said of Ewing after the SuperSonics had won the game. “I mean, he’s not the go-to superstar he once was but he’s still a very good center.”

A year ago, the SuperSonics had Horace Grant, now the Laker power forward, at center. Old and diminished, Ewing is still one of the 10 best centers, but he’s undecided about how much further to push it.

“We’ll see what happens this year, how I feel, how my body feels, if I’m going to play again,” he says. “I want to enjoy this year and see what happens, take it a day at a time.”

Maybe if not in Seattle, how about in Miami, even at a pay cut, with his beloved Riley and Mourning?

There’s a title out there with Patrick Ewing’s name on it and he’s darned if he’s giving up now.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Gamer

Patrick Ewing, 38, has had trouble avoiding injuries the last few years. This season is his first with Seattle after 15 with the New York Knicks. His games played each season and statistics (* Has not missed a game):

*--*

Season Games Pts Reb 1985-86 50 20.0 9.0 1986-87 63 21.5 8.8 1987-88 82 20.2 8.2 1988-89 80 22.7 9.3 1989-90 82 28.6 10.9 1990-91 81 26.6 11.2 1991-92 82 24.0 11.2 1992-93 81 24.2 12.1 1993-94 79 24.5 11.2 1994-95 79 23.9 11.0 1995-96 76 22.5 10.6 1996-97 78 22.4 10.7 1997-98 26 20.8 10.2 1999 38 17.3 9.9 1999-00 62 15.0 9.7 2000 *20 9.5 8.3

*--*

*

TONIGHT

SEATTLE

at LAKERS

7:30

NO PROBLEM

Despite latest incident, Rider still in plans. D4