Ode to P Ew - Big Fella in hall of fame

://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/hof_2008.html

Last night at halftime of the championship game (one of the better ones ever, no?) I flipped through the channels and came to FoxSports to hear this asshole Gary Apple talking about how theres no way Ewing could be considered the greatest knick of all time, critisizing him for always promissing to win big games and not always coming through, and generally degrading his career on the day he was inducted into the hall, also pointing out that ewing "wasnt always the most warm, fan friendly superstar in new york, and he wasnt good with the media". Yeah, one of those sensitive sports writer assholes, who is clearly missing something, like the point.

In defense of the big fella, I'm going to address these points one by one:

*He can't be considered the greatest knick of all time:
Stupid. Of course he can be considered the greatest knick of all time. This is clearly a debateable topic, but most certainly to knicks fans its a friendly, happy debate, not one that needs to be had with idiots who are going to point out any negative about patrick and ultimately just harp on the fact that he, in a team game, didnt deliver a championship. Three knicks; Clyde , Willis, and Ewing, are up for the honor of greatest knick of all time. Thats not just my opinion, but the obvious fact, if you are a knicks fan. And, any one of these guys could be considered the greatest. A serious argument about this can only be one in which the parties respectfully disagree and accept that yeah, you really could say its either of the three. But to the point, here's why Ewing is certainly in the conversation: Um, Clyde had Willis and Willis had Clyde. And Willis and Clyde had other great players on their team, perenial all stars and hall of fame players in Bill Bradley and Dave Debeussher, and of course Earl the Pearl. That is considered one of the greatest starting 5's of all time. Ewing never played with anyone who is even approaching Hall of Fame caliber. He never played with a second perenial all star, a second go to guy, let alone 3 or 4 others. Early in his career, he had Mark Jackson, in the middle it was Starks and Oak - all great guys, GREAT guys that we loved, but not the level of guys that could be considered that second scorer, that second great player. The most talented scorers ewing ever played with were Houston and Spree, at the end of his career. Yet year in and year out, the knicks were serious contenders. Lost lots of tough series. Lost lots of game 7's. Lost to the bulls a lot. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippin. Hello, put Scottie Pippin in his prime on the knicks. Give Ewing a guard as good as Clyde, like Willis had. You feel me. The Knicks were contenders year in, year out, and they had character, heart, toughness - all the charictaristics ewing had as their leader. And along the way, he is the NBA's 15th or 16th all time leading scorer, 20 something all time in rebounds, 5th or 6th all time in blocked shots, and leads the knicks all time in every possible category except 3's. So you gotta be an idiot or you werent watching if you think he cant be considered the greatest knick ever.

*He promised to win big games, and didnt always deliver:
I mean, he always predicted they were going to win. And a lot of the time they did. He'd say they'd win round one and they would, he'd say they'd win round 2 and they would, and then when they didnt win, it became headline news. Same shit as always with the new york media. Whatever is all i have to say to that. If you are mad at him for guaranteeing wins, whatever. Maybe if he wouldnt have said anything at all while the reporters were swarming after practice, then the knicks would have won? So stupid.

* He wasnt always good with the media
Look at some of the assholes in the league. P Ew was a standup guy. All he did was bust his ass 24/7 for 15 years in NY to try win a title. Have you ever seen a retirement ceremony like the one for P Ew in 2003. Random great players from all over the league, his peers that he played against, all making the trip to the Garden to honor him. Jordan, Barkley, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, freekin Dr J....Not to mention so many of his former team mates and all the legends like clyde and willis. I mean, thats how much respect there was for him. Jordan didnt have a retirement ceremony like that in chicago... not even close. I'll paste it hear i found it on youtube for those that wanna watch. So who cares if he wasnt great with the writers because their questions were annoying and irritating. Most of the media is annoying. ........... Proud day to be a knicks fan to see P ew go into the hall with Olajuwon, Riley, Dicky V.....

You should really take the time to watch this. Four parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQVxx6YZV5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6KCEwSjKAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D70xd03j644

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NaN896JzI