Building a starting five of New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing’s best teammates, if you could put them on the same team during their respective best season.
Modern-day New York Knicks fans forget that Patrick Ewing’s time in the Big Apple was marked by criticism. Long before teammate Charles Oakley used the media’s bullhorn to make his own critiques public, all you needed to do was walk down the escalators of Madison Square Garden at the end of a Knicks playoff loss, and you would hear plenty of fans voicing their frustration with Ewing’s failure to lead the team over the top.
How times have changed.
With the benefit of time and James Dolan, Patrick Ewing’s legacy in New York has improved. Knicks fans have suffered through two decades of losing since Ewing was shipped to the Seattle Supersonics, and the days of Ewing leading the Knicks deep into the playoffs every single season are surely missed.
But what about the players who played alongside Mr. Ewing in New York?
An argument long-held by Ewing supporters is that he never had a proper number two option in the lineup to take some of the load off the big man with failing knees late in his career.
We know the names of the players who suited up next to Ewing during the nineties. But what if we ignored time? What if we came up with a starting five around Ewing that gave him the best version of his best teammates at each position? In other words, you could put prime Patrick Ewing alongside someone like Allan Houston in his prime.
This is what the all-time Patrick Ewing teammates team would look like.
Patrick Ewing best teammates: Point Guard, Mark Jackson (1987-88 season)
Because Mark Jackson’s name has been attached to the New York Knicks head coaching position, many modern fans confuse his credentials as a coach with his contributions to the Knicks on the floor. Or if you are a little bit older, you probably remember him for making funny faces as he backed down opponents in the post as an Indiana Pacer.
If Twitter existed when Mark Jackson came into the league out of St. John’s, he would have made the hype for Frankie Smokes look calm.
Jackson won the 1987-88 Rookie of the Year Award with an incredible 82-game performance in which he averaged 13.6 points, 10.6 assists, and 2.5 steals. The 22-year-old seemingly made an amazing play every night on the court.
The ’87-88 Knicks were a fun team under new coach Rick Pitino. After getting off to a dreadful start, for the first time in Ewing’s career, they made the playoffs behind a high-pressure style of play that Pitino was famous for implementing wherever he coached. Mark Jackson made it all possible.
The Knicks are still looking for a point guard to produce like Jackson did during his rookie season. He gave the best point guard performance alongside Ewing.
Patrick Ewing best teammates: Shooting Guard, Allan Houston (1999-00 season)
While John Starks’ 1992-93 season deserves honorable mention, the best season by a shooting guard playing with Patrick Ewing came during Ewing’s final season with the Knicks.
Allan Houston’s 1999-00 campaign made him an All-Star for the first time in his career, and made it obvious that the torch was being passed from Ewing to Houston and Sprewell as the lead offensive threats on the Knicks roster.
Unfortunately, the emergence of Houston and Sprewell in the offense could have contributed to some of the discord that led to Ewing being traded out of New York, but at 37-years-old, it was time for fresh blood to lead the team anyway.
If Patrick Ewing could have played in his prime with the 1999-2000 version of Allan Houston, it would have been a deadly combination. Houston had one of the smoothest jump shots in Knicks history. He shot an amazing 48.3% from the field as a guard during Ewing’s final season in New York, including 43.6% from downtown.
If Charles Oakley was worried about Ewing passing out of double teams, imagine if the Big Fella had Houston on the perimeter in 1994?!
Sure, John Starks could get hot, but his inconsistency ultimately cost the Knicks in their championship quest against the Houston Rockets.
Patrick Ewing best teammates: Small Forward, Anthony Mason (1995-96 season)
Where do you start with Mase? The late Anthony Mason helped form one of the most formidable frontcourts in the NBA, alongside Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley.
Few players owned their role as well as Mason did with the Knicks. After winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1994-95, the rugged forward became a fixture in the Knicks starting lineup the following season, leading the NBA in minutes played per game at 42.2.
Mason averaged 14.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 4.4 assists during his last season in New York. Twenty-nine years old at the time, he was blossoming into one of the league’s best forwards. He would earn third-team All-NBA honors in 1996-97 with Charlotte.
Mason’s versatility to play all three forward positions, handle the basketball, and create plays for the players around him, makes him one of the best teammates in Ewing’s career. Luckily, the two got to compete together at a high level in the mid-nineties.
Patrick Ewing best teammates: Power Forward, Charles Oakley (1993-94 season)
This one feels bittersweet to write about after Charles Oakley has recently criticized his teammate Patrick Ewing for failing to lead the team to a championship.
That said, the Oak Man represented everything the New York Knicks stood for in the 1990s. They would knock you down, and wouldn’t look back to help you up. Opponents who tried to score against a frontline of Oakley, Mason, and Ewing were met with a WWF style of defense.
Oakley’s 1993-94 season was his lone All-Star campaign in the league, but deservingly so. His contributions extended beyond the box score, where he averaged a double-double with 11.8 points and 11.8 rebounds, on top of 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
His defensive work earned him first-team All-Defensive honors in 1993-94.
Whether it was pulling down a key offensive rebound, knocking down a penetrating point guard, or hitting an occasional mid-range jump shot, Oakley did everything to help the Knicks come within one game of a championship in ’94.
He was one of Ewing’s best teammates, despite the recent criticism.
Patrick Ewing best teammates: Sixth Man, John Starks (1996-97 season)
I wanted to build an all-time team without duplicating players, so while Anthony Mason had some incredible seasons off the bench, this spot is reserved for John Starks.
The passion in Starks’ game was the perfect ingredient to make him a spark off the bench. Late in the first quarter, after the excitement of introductions had worn off, maybe the other team had gotten off to a strong start, and a substitution would be made to bring in Starks, who would promptly hit a few big three-pointers to turn the momentum on the Knicks’ side.
In 1996-97, he won Sixth Man of the Year for his bench heroics. He averaged 13.8 points on 43.1% shooting, including 36.9% from downtown, while playing every minute like it was his last on the court.
John Starks was a great teammate to Patrick Ewing because he owned the role the coaches gave to him. For a superstar athlete like Ewing, he needed players around him that would help complement his game, which is exactly what Starks did.