HoopsHype.com Rumors

On if championships should count when assessing a player’s career: David Stern: “They do and they should. It doesn’t take it away from someone if he doesn’t have any. There are great players — Patrick Ewing, Bob Lanier, Dominique Wilkins, Bob McAdoo — all 50-greatest material, they don’t have championships. But the reality is that it does count a bit. And Michael has six and Kobe has five and LeBron has one and the world is standing back to see how well he’s gonna do. And we saw that with Larry and Magic, how they made everyone around them better. And Michael wasn’t the Michael of Ahmad Rashad fame and deification until he started winning championships, and that’s just the reality of it.” Sports Radio Interviews

Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Patrick Ewing, David Stern 

Ex-Knick Charles Oakley took another shot at Knicks brass for not hiring Patrick Ewing as an assistant coach this past offseason. “You play 15-plus years in New York,’’ Oakley said on 560 WQAM Radio in Florida, “and you get a guy like LaSalle Thompson, LJ [Larry Johnson]. These guys shouldn’t get a job before Patrick, not in New York. I don’t know what’s going on with New York.’’ Ewing, looking for a job after his Orlando stint, sat next to owner James Dolan at last Wednesday’s Knicks game against the Raptors. New York Post

New York Knicks, Coaching, Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley 

Sean Grande: Kevin Garnett (24,816) just passed Patrick Ewing for 16th on the @NBA all-time scoring list. Jerry West (25,192) is next. Twitter @SeanGrandePBP

Boston Celtics, Jerry West, Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett 

Ken Berger: If the Nets hired Jeff Van Gundy, coaching industry sources believe strongly he would hire Knicks icon Patrick Ewing as an assistant. Twitter @KBergCBS

Brooklyn Nets, Coaching, Patrick Ewing, Jeff Van Gundy 

Q. You’ve been an assistant with three N.B.A. teams. If you had a choice of any job in basketball, what would it be? Patrick Ewing. I want to be a head coach in the N.B.A. And I have worked very hard to be ready for that opportunity. New York Times

Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

Q. Why did you turn down the offer to coach the Knicks’ Development League team? Ewing. I didn’t think it was the right job for me. I want to coach in the N.B.A. New York Times

New York Knicks, Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

Ewing didn’t seem to harbor any bad blood against his former team, which offered him the head coaching job with their D-League affiliate, the Erie Bayhawks. “I still consider myself a Knick, I’m still a part of the organization,” Ewing said. “When the time comes, something will happen. “I still want to coach. Unfortunately we got let go in Orlando, I turned a job down in Atlanta and nothing else was offered.” New York Post

Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

For those too young to remember, the on-court incident to which Rose refers occurred on March 30, 1999, when Rose's Pacers paid a visit to Manhattan to take on their hated rivals. From Ira Berkow's report in the New York Times: Against the Pacers in Madison Square Garden, [Ewing] went for a rebound and knocked Jalen Rose of Indiana to the floor. This is fairly routine in the National Basketball Associaton and it is also fairly routine that Rose might retaliate in some way. So he did. As Ewing trotted over and past him, Rose tripped him. Ewing stumbled; Rose rose, and Ewing got to his feet and went after Rose, as though to throttle him. [...] As Ewing came closer to Rose, obviously looking for trouble, Rose backpedaled with hands and arms in a kind of rope-a-dope posture, looking for an opening to the bigger Ewing, or an exit. And then the referee, Dick Bavetta, jumped between them and received an accidental whack on the nose from the defensive Rose. [...] ''I wanted to smack him,'' said Ewing after the game, ''but ...'' Yahoo! Sports

Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Jalen Rose, Patrick Ewing 

As Rose relates, though, after a later Pacers win over the Knicks in Indiana, Rose got one up on Patrick. "Both teams were flying out to away games. I just so happened to go into the airport," Rose said. "I walk in and I see a silver chest, with blue, and a sticker that says 'Patrick Ewing.' So then the Detroit instincts came out." (NOTE: These instincts seem less regionally specific than inherent-thieving-and-sneaking-based, but we're not from Detroit.) Yahoo! Sports

Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Jalen Rose, Patrick Ewing 

"I look to the left, I look to the right, [and] I hit the handles," Rose continues. "I open it — it's a TV with a VCR attached. That was something then. We don't use VHS and VCRs anymore, but to have a TV, with the attachment? And it has his name on it? I was like, 'I'm getting this.'" With the help of a "Detroit homeboy" whom Rose says was "down like four flat tires" for the rip and run, Jalen says he stole Patrick Ewing's TV and kept it in his house for years as a conversation piece and a trophy. Of course he did — like Martha Stewart always says, nothing makes a house a home like a large piece of electronic equipment you stole at the airport. Solid work, Jalen. Looking forward to the next "Story Time" segment, when he shares a hearty laugh at slashing Shawn Bradley's tires or setting Jamal Mashburn's beach house on fire. Yahoo! Sports

Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Jalen Rose, Patrick Ewing 

Al Iannazzone: Knicks legend Patrick Ewing is co-hosting today's real training televised Knicks practice on NBA TV. Twitter @Al_Iannazzone

New York Knicks, Patrick Ewing 

Alan Hahn: Great stuff by @Rick Kamla getting Melo to respond to Ewing's Dream Team debate with Patrick there: "I'm biased, I have to go with my team." Twitter @alanhahn

New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

At 6-foot-11 and 235 pounds, he should have an easier adjustment than his predecessors. The position no longer has bruisers such as Shaquille O'Neal, Patrick Ewing or David Robinson. With the exception of Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum, Bosh will face competitors who are mostly glorified power forwards. Bosh said the move is "over analyzed" because the evolution at center. "The game was different back then," he said. "The game changes every now and then. At that point, it was all about girth. You have to be big, Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley and Patrick Ewing and Vlade Divac. It's different now. The game is a lot faster. If you're big, we're going to run right by you. South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Miami Heat, Chris Bosh, Andrew Bynum, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, Patrick Ewing, Vlade Divac, David Robinson, Charles Oakley 

Ewing served as an NBA assistant coach for the past 10 years, with aspirations to become a head coach, but was fired along with the rest of Stan Van Gundy’s Magic staff last season. Despite the smiles yesterday that came with the memories and the adulation, this does not sit well with the big man. “I’m just home, hanging out,” Ewing said. “I do have coaching [aspirations], but all the jobs are taken up right now. So I’m just hanging out, relaxing and taking some time off and will try to come back next year.” New York Post

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

“I didn’t want to coach D-League,” Ewing said, leaving it at that because nothing more needed to be said. “I’ve had a few interviews, but they just didn’t pan out,” he said — one in Detroit and one in Charlotte, where he was an assistant for five years. New York Post

Orlando Magic, Coaching, Patrick Ewing 

Marv Kessler, a product of Brooklyn’s schoolyards who spent more than half a century in basketball as a player, a coach, a scout and, most prominently, a camp instructor who molded young athletes like Patrick Ewing and Stephon Marbury, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 80. New York Times

Patrick Ewing, Stephon Marbury, Marv Kessler 

One source close to Ewing said the Hall of Famer felt a bit slighted by the Knicks' offer to coach the Erie Bayhawks because he has already established himself in the NBA. "Patrick has paid his dues," the source said. "He was a little insulted." ESPN.com

New York Knicks, Coaching, D-League, Patrick Ewing 

Patrick Ewing, who for years has been passed over for coaching positions with the Knicks, recently turned down an opportunity to become head coach of the club’s D-League team, the Daily News has learned. Although Ewing is out of work after not being retained by the Orlando Magic, the former Knicks great, who interviewed for the Charlotte Bobcats head coach position in June, would prefer to work in the NBA. Ewing has previously worked as an assistant coach with the Wizards, Rockets and Magic but has never been offered a job with the Knicks despite numerous openings over the years. New York Daily News

New York Knicks, Coaching, D-League, Patrick Ewing 

How about the time he put 6-foot-7 Chris Mullin on 7-foot-1 David Robinson in a playoff series? That was quirky. Just like Mullin on 7-foot-4 Mark Eaton, also in the postseason. And Patrick Ewing as a point-center. Innovative. That was the tag Don Nelson got for decades of trying to lure opponents into mismatch hell as coach of the Bucks, Warriors (twice), Knicks and Mavericks. It was the quirky way he'd encourage Manute Bol to rain threes to force the defense to come out (in the days before zones, thereby opening the interior to give small-ball Golden State a chance to get to the rim) or maybe just to force a good laugh on people. Nelson's fish ties in Milwaukee, Bol launching from distance -- same difference. NBA.com

Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Manute Bol, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Don Nelson, Hall of Fame 

Patrick Ewing is readying for a comeback -- or at least his shoes are. The former New York Knicks center is relaunching his shoe company, Ewing Athletics, later this week. "Over the years, I've had a lot of people ask me when they'd see me at appearances of when I was coaching, if I was ever bringing the shoes back," Ewing said Tuesday. "I just didn't feel comfortable doing it." ESPN.com

Sneakers, Patrick Ewing