Patrick Ewing NBA icon, Knicks, facing MJ, Shaq, Hakeem & reality of never winning a ring| The Pivot

TL;DR

Patrick Ewing reflects on his Hall of Fame career, the Knicks' near-misses, competing against Jordan and Hakeem, and why lacking a ring doesn't diminish greatness.

Key Points

• 1.Ewing doesn't believe ringless careers are diminished. He cites Charles Barkley and other all-time greats without rings, saying the card just wasn't dealt — but he made the Finals twice, missing the second due to a torn Achilles.
• 2.Facing MJ was never intimidating — it was purely competitive. Ewing says he never thought 'that's Michael Jordan'; he was tunnel-vision focused on beating him, the same way Jordan was trying to beat him.
• 3.The Knicks' physical identity under Pat Riley was intentional. Riley's rule: anyone who enters the paint gets put on their back, and if you help them up, that's a fine — a deliberate counter to Detroit's Bad Boys.
• 4.Hakeem Olajuwon beat Ewing twice — first in college, then in the 1994 NBA Finals. The Finals went seven games; Ewing missed a critical layup in the deciding game, and Houston's home-court advantage and Sam Cassell's big three proved decisive.
• 5.Jordan's separation from peers was belief and drive, not just athleticism. Ewing recalls seeing Jordan at McDonald's All-American games and visiting North Carolina, noting other players seemed more talented at the time but lacked Jordan's singular mental edge.
• 6.Ewing immigrated from Jamaica to Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 12, standing 5'11". His mother worked as a nanny/maid for 10 years to earn residency; the family arrived two-by-two, facing hostility from both white and Black American communities.
• 7.Ewing credits John Thompson as a father figure and donated $3.3 million to Georgetown in his name. Rather than putting his own name on the building, he honored Thompson — who shielded the freshman Ewing from overwhelming media attention and brought in corporate role models like McDonald's CEOs and Coca-Cola VPs.
• 8.John Starks going 2-for-18 in Game 7 doesn't draw Ewing's criticism. Ewing says every scorer always believes the next shot is going in — including Steph Curry — and that self-belief is non-negotiable; he wanted the ball himself regardless.
• 9.Shaq is referenced as part of the dominant big-men era Ewing competed in. Ewing coached Yao Ming (7'4"–7'5") and says the way to defend modern giants like Wembanyama is to be as physically aggressive as legally possible, pushing them away from their preferred spots.
• 10.Ewing views the current Knicks optimistically as their ambassador. He says the playoff atmosphere at MSG last year reminded him of his playing days, praises Jalen Brunson (whose development he partially credits to his father) and Karl-Anthony Towns, and wishes he could have played alongside Brunson.