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Our 75 Before '94 project landed alongside the NBA's 75th anniversary celebrations. SLAM magazine itself started in 1994, so plenty of brilliant players never made a cover during our run. This series was built as a tribute to those stars.
Plenty of Hall of Famers, champions and All-Stars have worn a Knicks jersey, yet you can still make a straight-faced case that Patrick Ewing was the best of them all.
Start with the numbers. Ewing sits alone atop six franchise categories: points (23,665), rebounds (10,759), blocks (2,758), steals (1,061), games played (1,039) and minutes played (37,586). Hard to argue with that.
Or skip the stats entirely and go with something you can't measure.
Ewing was the Knicks.
He picked up the torch from the title winners of the '70s and pushed their dedication to hard work and defense even further. His body took a beating for the city. The offense kept growing too, and he retired as one of the best mid-range shooting big men the game has seen. Quitting was never on the table.
Wearing blue and orange, he carried an identity that belonged to the Knicks and to New York at the same time. The guy fought past the point where his shift should have ended. Subway workers on the MTA, deli owners behind the counter, teachers stretched thin on supplies, kids at the park with a ball and a dream — they all saw themselves in him. That's how far the impact reached.
Which is the real reason he might be the best Knick ever. He was a mirror of New York.
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