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It seems like this season has been filled with retired NBAers criticizing the modern era.
Oscar Robertson essentially said he was unimpressed with the Warriors. Charles Barkley is consistently knocking the quality of the today’s NBA. Then there was Stephen Jackson, who said that his 48-win, 2006-07 Warriors team, who gloriously made it to the second round as a No. 8 seed, would beat the — currently 66-7 — Golden State squad.
Patrick Ewing, who remains in the game as an assistant coach with the Hornets, and deserved a shot coaching his own team a half decade ago, isn’t knocking any modern players, though he does admit he may have had a different mentality during his playing days.
In an interview with ESPN, Hannah Storm asked Ewing about LeBron James unfollowing the Cavaliers’ team account on Twitter and LBJ’s recent comments that he would want to team up with friends Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony before he retires.
Ewing’s response was perfectly measured:
First of all, LeBron right now is the best player in the game. I’m not big with the Twitter and the Facebook, so him befriending them or whatever you want to call it, that’s his prerogative. Even if he wants to think that he wants to play with those guys, I don’t see it happening. We all have dreams, and that’s his dream.
But as interviewers do, Storm followed up, though it is thoroughly disappointing she didn’t ask Ewing more about “the Twitter,” “the Facebook” and the rest of the social media landscape.
Would Ewing consider playing with Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson or Larry Bird?
Probably not, because we have so much of a great rivalry going against one another. Larry, with his trash-talking. Magic, also with trash-talking, also a great player. But to win a championship, a lot of people are willing to do that.
Actually, for all the recent talk there has been from retired greats about modern-day players, this one seems reasonable all around. Ewing didn’t criticize LeBron one bit. He just said what he would’ve done in his time. And you have to assume he’s being honest, considering how hot some of those Knicks playoff series got in the ’90s.
Ewing only played in one NBA Finals, losing to the Rockets in 1994 (he was injured before facing the Spurs in ’99), and has become somewhat forgotten, even underrated over time, in part because of all the tremendous centers he went up against (Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, etc.) and in part because he never garnered that championship. Yet, from his tone, you can guess he doesn’t regret sticking with the Knicks for almost his whole career, retiring ringless in 2002 after playing out his final two seasons in Seattle and Orlando.
Patrick Ewing, not yet a curmudgeon.
(ESPN)
