Patrick Ewing: Paying Homage to the Knicks' Greatest Player

The Knicks have become the laughingstock of the NBA and probably all of professional sports. It has been hard being a Knicks fan for the past five years.

Everything that could have gone wrong, did. It's times like these that make me want to watch ESPN classic and YouTube to remind myself that the Knicks were once great and no one was better at personifying that greatness than Patrick Ewing.

Today Patrick Ewing was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This Hall of Fame class was stacked. Names like Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Dick Vitale all were a part of it. Though Olajuwon and Riley have won championships, Ewing is definitely the headliner of this class.

He brought basketball back home to New York, where it belongs, and is the greatest player the Knicks ever had. Patrick was one of the greatest players coming out of college ever. They invented the draft lottery because of Patrick Ewing. Luckily my Knicks won and got the player that changed their franchise.

The Knicks had only made the playoffs four times in the nine years before they drafted Ewing. When Ewing came on board it began a series of playoff appearances that many teams would crave. Ewing played in 16 seasons with the New York Knicks and made 11 All-Star teams.

He made the All-NBA first or second team seven times and was a three-time All-NBA defensive second team. During those seasons the Knicks made the playoffs 13 times in a row. He is the Knicks' all-time leader in almost every major stat. He is the Knicks' leader in points (24,815), rebounds (11,607), and blocks (2,894).

However, a lot of fans remember the one negative throughout his career. He never won that ring. Obviously there were reasons outside of Patrick Ewing's control that prevented him from winning a title. The main reason was No. 23 Michael Jordan.

The Knicks in the early '90s were probably some of the greatest Knicks teams ever and were some of the toughest and best defending teams of all time. From the 1988-1989 season to the 1992-1993 season the Bulls eliminated the Knicks four times. With Jordan out of the equation in the early '90s, the Knicks would have won at least one title.

When Jordan retired it seemed like it was the Knicks' time to finally make the NBA Finals. This wasn't as good of a team compared to the teams that lost to the Bulls, but they were still capable of winning the championship. However, they lost in the Finals to the Rockets.

Though Ewing was out-performed by Hakeem, the Knicks' downfall in Game Seven was the failure of Starks' horrendous shooting and Riley not taking Starks out of the game. In 1995, the infamous Ewing finger roll cost the Knicks another chance at the title and when MJ came back the door slammed shut on Ewing's championship hopes.

Though he did not win the ring that Knicks fans wanted, he represented all the Knicks were about. He was a tough player who never backed down and gave 100 percent all the time. Though he never won a championship, there is no doubting that Patrick Ewing had the heart of a champion.