Patrick Ewing was dubbed the savior of the New York Knicks when they drafted him first in the 1985 NBA Draft. During his 15 seasons with the Knicks, Ewing led the Knicks to many memorable playoff battles. But for all his greatness, Ewing never won an NBA championship for the Knicks.
Big Pat led the Knicks to two trips to the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1999. The closest he got to the Larry O'Brien trophy was in '94 when the Knicks were one win away from the chip. However, they lost the last two games of that series to give Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets their first championship.
During a 2015 interview, then-head coach Pat Riley regretted not doing better to help Ewing win that year.
" Patrick was a guy that gave everything he could give to that city to try to win a championship, " said Riley. "It's probably one of the biggest disappointments I had in my life not being able to give them enough in Games 6 and 7 when we were in Houston so that Patrick could've gotten his first championship."
Rockets take the series in Game 7
Houston drew first blood, taking Game 1 at home. However, the Knicks stole home-court advantage with a victory in Game 2. Back then, the Finals had a 2-3-2 format, and New York took two out of the three games at home to take a 3-2 series lead. But the Rockets were not done.
Game 6 went down to the last second. After the Rockets surged to a 46-36 halftime lead, the Knicks fought back to make it a close game. In the dying moments, John Starks had a chance to win the championship, but Olajuwon blocked his three-point attempt, and the Rockets lived to fight another day with an 86-84 win.
Houston made the most out of their opportunity as Olajuwon posted a 25-10-7 performance in Game 7. Vernon Maxwell added 21 points on 6-11 shooting as the Rockets pulled off the victory to win their first NBA championship.
Riley regretted sticking out with Starks
While Dream and Max Max were on fire in the winner-take-all game, the Knicks' stalwarts struggled. Ewing scored just 17 points on 7-17 shooting, while Starks was even worse, with just 8 points on 2-18 shooting, including 0-11 from a three-point distance. Riley called his decision to ride Starks despite his struggles the biggest mistake he ever made .
It was one thing that Starks was ice cold from the field. But it was another that Riley let him stay on the court for 42 minutes instead of giving some of the playing time to veteran guard Rolando Blackman or the sharp-shooting Hubert Davis. Davis played just four minutes in that game and went 1-2 on three-point shots, while Blackman never got a single second of playing time in the entire Finals.
Ewing never got close to hoisting the Larry O'Brien again. The Knicks made a Cinderella run to the 1999 NBA Finals, but Patrick missed the championship series with an injury suffered in the Conference Finals. Looking back, it's interesting to think what could have happened had Riley approached Game 7 of the '94 Finals differently and made roster changes that could have yielded better results and potentially even a title.
Related: “I would have loved playing with a player of his caliber” - Patrick Ewing on how he would have loved playing with Carmelo Anthony
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