Was Patrick Ewing really the best NBA prospect of all time?

[BobbyPortisEyes]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/37996676/best-draft-prospect-bracket-nfl-nba-mlb-nhl-wnba

I just read this article and it says Patrick Ewing was the greatest NBA prospect of all time. Better than Lebron too apparently because of Ewing's college experience.

I wasn't alive in 1985 but it seems pretty weird to me that a guy averaging 15 and 9 in his college career was the greatest draft prospect of all time. Can someone who was alive shed some light on this? What did people think Ewing was going to improve on and develop as he entered the NBA?

[Backcountry]

I wouldn't say he was the greatest prospect, but there were a lot of people salivating over him. NBA-ready physique, imposing presence, domination all through college even as a freshman. The Hoyas were a perennial powerhouse for his 4 years, mainly because of his defense. And he has a pretty good NBA record as well. I remember reading that, in college, he was told to go out and goaltend early in the game just to send a message to the opponents. And it wasn't goaltending like a swat at the backboard, it was a huge vertical leap against what shouldn't even be a touchable shot. He was going to be better than Russell, Hakeem, better than KAJ. But it was his defense more than his offence that made him so good. And he played 4 years, so came out of college ready to go, none of this rookie learning curve.

Really, that's why Greg Oden was such a big deal, too. He was basically the same size and presence as Ewing as a freshman, and projected to have a similar career. Hard to believe he is still only 35.

[iLLmatic860]

nobody says this

[jkvonny]

What??

[oldncreaky]

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

People may have forgotten that, back in 1984, NCAA basketball was a bigger sport than the NBA. More eyeballs. More money. More TV exposure. The Magic-Bird rivalry was just gaining traction, and Jordan was at UNC.

Patrick Ewing was better known to casual fans than all but a handful of NBA stars like Magic, Bird, Dr J, Kareem. I remember a conversation with a work colleague in Detroit who was a casual sports fan, around the time of the 1984 Celtics-Lakers finals. The guy had heard of Ewing and Kareem, but not Dr J or Moses Malone. Blew my mind, but it reflected who got TV and newspaper coverage.

[jkvonny]

I wouldn't say he was the greatest prospect, but there were a lot of people salivating over him. NBA-ready physique, imposing presence, domination all through college even as a freshman. The Hoyas were a perennial powerhouse for his 4 years, mainly because of his defense. And he has a pretty good NBA record as well. I remember reading that, in college, he was told to go out and goaltend early in the game just to send a message to the opponents. And it wasn't goaltending like a swat at the backboard, it was a huge vertical leap against what shouldn't even be a touchable shot. He was going to be better than Russell, Hakeem, better than KAJ. But it was his defense more than his offence that made him so good. And he played 4 years, so came out of college ready to go, none of this rookie learning curve.

Really, that's why Greg Oden was such a big deal, too. He was basically the same size and presence as Ewing as a freshman, and projected to have a similar career. Hard to believe he is still only 35.

I think this is a very good summary, breakdown. I was a kid back then.
Do remember the hype.
Georgetown was strong back then too. Won a NC during the mid '80s as well.
The Big East Conference was huge during the '80s and '90s. NYC is in that region and has NY schools in the conference. Northeast US regional schools.

National media desperately wanted him to go to NY (large market). Knicks. Stern did, too. Obviously lol

[jkvonny]

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

People may have forgotten that, back in 1984, NCAA basketball was a bigger sport than the NBA. More eyeballs. More money. More TV exposure. The Magic-Bird rivalry was just gaining traction, and Jordan was at UNC.

Patrick Ewing was better known to casual fans than all but a handful of NBA stars like Magic, Bird, Dr J, Kareem. I remember a conversation with a work colleague in Detroit who was a casual sports fan, around the time of the 1984 Celtics-Lakers finals. The guy had heard of Ewing and Kareem, but not Dr J or Moses Malone. Blew my mind, but it reflected who got TV and newspaper coverage.

Good summary.
Wow. Didnt know those Sixers? They had just won NBA title too.

[Backcountry]

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

People may have forgotten that, back in 1984, NCAA basketball was a bigger sport than the NBA. More eyeballs. More money. More TV exposure. The Magic-Bird rivalry was just gaining traction, and Jordan was at UNC.

Patrick Ewing was better known to casual fans than all but a handful of NBA stars like Magic, Bird, Dr J, Kareem. I remember a conversation with a work colleague in Detroit who was a casual sports fan, around the time of the 1984 Celtics-Lakers finals. The guy had heard of Ewing and Kareem, but not Dr J or Moses Malone. Blew my mind, but it reflected who got TV and newspaper coverage.

I'm the same age as MJ, and grew up in small-town Canada, where we had no NBA or NCAA coverage other than little blurbs in the sports section of the local paper. Everyone knew Wilt, but mainly because of the Globetrotters. My first real exposure was Dr. J. Saw some highlights on this cool thing called "cable" when visiting some relatives. So I became a Sixers fan until the Raptors came along. I still have a hard time hating on the Sixers, despite the rivalry. Wasn't until I got to university that I finally could follow NCAA and NBA with any regularity. It was a perfect time, with Ewing, Jordan, Phi Slama Jama etc. Glory days, when players weren't all one-and-done. Ewing was a monster among boys, but there were others like Sampson and Hakeem and Clyde the Glide, this Barkley kid, and so on.

[oldncreaky]

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

People may have forgotten that, back in 1984, NCAA basketball was a bigger sport than the NBA. More eyeballs. More money. More TV exposure. The Magic-Bird rivalry was just gaining traction, and Jordan was at UNC.

Patrick Ewing was better known to casual fans than all but a handful of NBA stars like Magic, Bird, Dr J, Kareem. I remember a conversation with a work colleague in Detroit who was a casual sports fan, around the time of the 1984 Celtics-Lakers finals. The guy had heard of Ewing and Kareem, but not Dr J or Moses Malone. Blew my mind, but it reflected who got TV and newspaper coverage.

I'm the same age as MJ, and grew up in small-town Canada, where we had no NBA or NCAA coverage other than little blurbs in the sports section of the local paper. Everyone knew Wilt, but mainly because of the Globetrotters. My first real exposure was Dr. J. Saw some highlights on this cool thing called "cable" when visiting some relatives. So I became a Sixers fan until the Raptors came along. I still have a hard time hating on the Sixers, despite the rivalry. Wasn't until I got to university that I finally could follow NCAA and NBA with any regularity. It was a perfect time, with Ewing, Jordan, Phi Slama Jama etc. Glory days, when players weren't all one-and-done. Ewing was a monster among boys, but there were others like Sampson and Hakeem and Clyde the Glide, this Barkley kid, and so on.

I grew up in Canada a few years before you, pre-cable, but within the Detroit media market for TV/radio, and if you had a good enough antenna, Cleveland. In the late 70s, UM, MSU and UDetroit all had (at least some) TV games, and I even saw a TV broadcast of a Central Michigan game when one of my high school friends played on the team. But I think the Pistons were radio-only until 1978. Gives you an idea of how much the TV market favoured NCAA over NBA games.

[DavidSterned]

I would still say Kareem.

[HotelVitale]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/37996676/best-draft-prospect-bracket-nfl-nba-mlb-nhl-wnba
I just read this article and it says Patrick Ewing was the greatest NBA prospect of all time. Better than Lebron too apparently because of Ewing's college experience. I wasn't alive in 1985 but it seems pretty weird to me that a guy averaging 15 and 9 in his college career was the greatest draft prospect of all time. Can someone who was alive shed some light on this? What did people think Ewing was going to improve on and develop as he entered the NBA?

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

Right, creaky, the question here is 'most hyped' prospect of all time. The headline is intentionally misleading but that's what the panelists were being asked to rank, not who was actually the best prospects per se.

[giberish]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/37996676/best-draft-prospect-bracket-nfl-nba-mlb-nhl-wnba
I just read this article and it says Patrick Ewing was the greatest NBA prospect of all time. Better than Lebron too apparently because of Ewing's college experience. I wasn't alive in 1985 but it seems pretty weird to me that a guy averaging 15 and 9 in his college career was the greatest draft prospect of all time. Can someone who was alive shed some light on this? What did people think Ewing was going to improve on and develop as he entered the NBA?

He was incredibly heavily hyped, and a big part of the reason why the draft lottery was introduced

Right, creaky, the question here is 'most hyped' prospect of all time. The headline is intentionally misleading but that's what the panelists were being asked to rank, not who was actually the best prospects per se.

There's a lot of short attention span issues when people start saying 'greatest prospect of all time'. It generally means 'greatest prospect for a few years' (the same with Wemby now).

[Snotbubbles]

I wouldn't say he was the greatest prospect, but there were a lot of people salivating over him. NBA-ready physique, imposing presence, domination all through college even as a freshman. The Hoyas were a perennial powerhouse for his 4 years, mainly because of his defense. And he has a pretty good NBA record as well. I remember reading that, in college, he was told to go out and goaltend early in the game just to send a message to the opponents. And it wasn't goaltending like a swat at the backboard, it was a huge vertical leap against what shouldn't even be a touchable shot. He was going to be better than Russell, Hakeem, better than KAJ. But it was his defense more than his offence that made him so good. And he played 4 years, so came out of college ready to go, none of this rookie learning curve.

Really, that's why Greg Oden was such a big deal, too. He was basically the same size and presence as Ewing as a freshman, and projected to have a similar career. Hard to believe he is still only 35.

I wasn't old enough to remember the Bird/Magic drafts. I think around 1983 was when I started to really get into basketball. Big East basketball (and college for that matter) was about as good as it got. St. Johns, Georgetown, Syracuse, Nova, every Saturday there was a great game on.

I can't think of one NBA draft prospect that I thought was better than Patrick Ewing. That doesn't mean that there weren't more talented players, just that, IMO I thought it was a lock that Ewing was going to be a HOF player when all was said and done. The closest player to Ewing for me was probably Shaq. You just knew, barring injury that they were going to be great.

[blind prophet]

Well enough to bend that envelope for Stern to know which one to grab.

[durden_tyler]

This is why Jordan is the GOAT, he destroyed the "best ever prospect"or player every single time.

[JayMKE]

Kareem is the GOAT high school and college player, nobody comes close to what he accomplished before he got to the NBA.

[Ballerhogger]

Kareem and Lebron say hi

[LofJ]

Kareem is the GOAT high school and college player, nobody comes close to what he accomplished before he got to the NBA.

This is what I was going to say, Kareem dominated the NCAA in a way no one else has. The only other player who came close was Bill Walton. Everyone knows Kareem dominated in the NBA as well, but Walton won an MVP and a championship before injuries derailed him. Both were better prospects coming out of college than Ewing. I'd argue Hakeem was an equal or better prospect as well.

[ellobo]

It sort of depends on what you mean by "best" or "most hyped."

As someone who was a Big East and Knicks fan and saw his entire college and pro career, I thought Ewing was clearly a franchise-level talent, and I was thrilled when the Knicks won the lottery to be able to pick him, but not that he was necessarily better than close contemporaries Olajuwon and Robinson, both of whom I thought were more explosive and fluid athletes than Ewing and no less skilled. And I certainly didn't expect him to be better than Kareem. So my expectation was a high-level star, but not the highest level of all-time great, which turned out to be pretty accurate.

Definitely not "best" as a prospect, at least for me at the time.

As for hype, I think there was a synergy between Ewing's high level of college success and recognition and the implementation of the draft lottery. He became more than just the consensus top pick in the draft, but the prize in a contest. So that boosted the "hype" factor above the actual "best" factor.

[druggas]

"Re: Was Patrick Ewing really the best NBA prospect of all time?"

Not even close.