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I think Ewing is somewhat forgotten in conversions on alltime greats. I think he is top 30, possibly top 25. If the Knicks best Chicago in 93 and Phoenix, win the championship, best Houston in 94 to win and Ewing wasnt injured in 99 and they beat Spurs (a stretch but Ewing was still good and a good matchup for Robinson and Duncan), three championships, say 1 fmvp in 93 only, where does he rank alltime?

With playing so badly in 1994 finals and being a roleplayer in 1999, I don't think these two years should change much. 1993 could be interesting, but would they beat the Suns? I don't know...

70sFan wrote:With playing so badly in 1994 finals and being a roleplayer in 1999, I don't think these two years should change much. 1993 could be interesting, but would they beat the Suns? I don't know...

He was a role player in 99, he shot ls because of Houston and Sprewell but in the playoffs he'd have been more important, especially against the Spurs.

I didn't say he'd get fmvp in 94 because he wouldn't have, but a championship and he was the best player easily throughout that season as usual.

The ring should not matter. Ewing was very good.

SinceGatlingWasARookie wrote:The ring should not matter. Ewing was very good.

It does to most people.

If Ewing wins in 93, you're taking down the defending champion bulls and beating Jordan for the first time. He'd likely have a solid finals statistically too not having to face an all time great center. So that'd legitimately catapult him up the rankings.

In 94 that's more of a legacy win. Even with his poor shooting I think he'd get finals MVP over Harper as "the best player on a championship team." He also takes down his college rival/peer in Hakeem. 99 is interesting if he comes back and has enough impact to slow down Robinson. That's definitely the least realistic though as he was past his prime.

So yeah, 93 objectively is key here as the biggest impact. Now I'm gonna go cry, thanks OP.

migya wrote:I think Ewing is somewhat forgotten in conversions on alltime greats. I think he is top 30, possibly top 25. If the Knicks best Chicago in 93 and Phoenix, win the championship, best Houston in 94 to win and Ewing wasnt injured in 99 and they beat Spurs (a stretch but Ewing was still good and a good matchup for Robinson and Duncan), three championships, say 1 fmvp in 93 only, where does he rank alltime?

Ewing was never the same after his wrist injury in 1998. His offensive game was just gone. A 1999 title does nothing because I can't conceive of him playing better in 1999. He would have had to been a different player.

1993 and 1994 are doable. A 1993 title in which he kicked the crap out of a donught Phoenix team after a great EC playoffs would help immensenly. He was excellent against Zo and Chicago. All of sudden he gets seen as a guy who was able to take out a two time defending champ built around his defense while leading the team to the title in the finals with a great offensive performance.

1994 he couldn't have played much worse after a season when he was clearly exiting his prime. Let's assume Hakeem still outplays him but Ewing offensive game isn't complete trash. Assuming that, I think people will say this is a guy who was good enough that you could build a two time champ around after he was at the end of his prime. People, outside of the hardcore fans, would mostly ignore him getting outplayed by Hakeem. Just as they've ignored other series in which a team won a title after a poor series.

So he'd get top 20 consideration but there would be a lot of skeptics from the analytics types and the skill-set types who look at things like his weak passing, poor hands.

Top 10 for me

Depending how it was done...
Ewing beasting a lot better so they won, other players in Knicks stepped up big, or the other teams straight up sucked harder?