The NBA's "big four centers" in the 90s came to the last place, ranking fourth: Patrick Ewing.
Friends who have watched the cartoon "Slam Dunk Master" should know who the prototype of shonbei team captain "Gorilla" Akagi Tsuyoshi is - yes, it is the NBA's "gorilla" Ewing, the similarity between the two is more than 90%, in addition to looks, there is also a way of playing.
However, what Ewing and Akagi Tsuyoshi most resemble is the fate of the two: both are tragic figures, both of them are struggling to support the team, but the solution is not so good, Akagi did not enter the national final four, and among the four centers, Ewing is the only one who does not have an NBA championship ring.
If the time could be reversed, the moment Ewing probably least wanted to return to was the finals: the layup at his key moment, which was pressed dead on the rebound by Olajuwon.
If we talk about super centers, most of them blurt out O'Neal, Big Dream, Yao Ming, Abbabal, Chamberlain, and modern centers may think of David Robinson, Sabonis, and even Howard, Cousins, Anthony Davis, Jokic.
Patrick Ewing, probably the most overlooked one.
Turning over Ewing's resume: 11 All-Stars, 1 first team and 6 second-team, 92 Dream team members, 20,000 points + 10,000 rebounds club members, peak average 28 + 11 + 3, plus 3.6 blocks, maintaining a 53% shooting percentage.
The years had been eroding his knees, but he had been chasing the old self, thrusting again and again towards the championship. Before he left the game, he had been the Knicks' leader and the team's all-time scoring champion, and 24,815 points was also ranked 15th in the all-time scoring list, but when most Knicks fans talked about Ewing, their eyes were full of darkness and disappointment: how they hoped that the king could lead the Knicks to the NBA championship, but in 1994, the Knicks lost to the Rockets, and Ewing lost to Olajuwon, forever nailed to the shame column of history.
If you change the era, maybe Ewing will achieve more and let his status go up.
Of the four centers, Ewing may be a unique presence – he is the center who most resembles a "center". Big Shark O'Neill is born with divine power, relying on strength alone, can blow up 99% of the players in the same position, although O'Neal's technology and speed have always been despised; Admiral Robinson, athletic talent crushes all players of the same height, watch Robinson play, in this era, that is the combination of Durant + thick eyebrows; big dream Olajuwon, naturally needless to mention, is a center with small forward speed + scoring guard technology + organization of defender footsteps. The attributes and skills of these three people are actually a little out of the normal range of the center, because they all have a bug that is different from ordinary people.
Simple explanation: talent.
Ewing, on the other hand, is different, better than the other centre-forwards, but is firmly controlled by three:
Ewing was physically strong and solid in the next game, but he bumped into O'Neill head-on.
He was fast, explosive, and agility outstanding among the center forwards, and Olajuwon and Robinson looked at him: "You say it again?"
Ewing's technique is very good, there is a back-to-back singles technique, the turn-over jump shot is also very good, there are also mid-shots, but the back can not beat O'Neal, turn over jump shots and mid-shots, than Olajuwon and Robinson;
He defended well, but those three weren't bad either;
Finally, Ewing's mental attributes are also very strong, and his personality is tough enough, the leader of a team, and then, as soon as he looks up, there stands Michael Jordan, who has the strongest spiritual attributes.
This is Ewing, a super center who is the standard, first-class in terms of strength, skill, traits and status!
In addition to honors.
Ewing has shown a dominant performance in the face of sharks, big dreams, and admirals, but in this life, there is always one person who can never cross, and that person is the "basketball god" Michael Jordan.
The New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls are both in the East, and the three big brothers are squatting in the West, so Ewing has become the first line of "fighting Against Jordan". Sharks, Big Dreams, Admirals, all three of them combined, none of them have faced Jordan more often than Ewing alone...
While Jordan was there, Ewing didn't win once.
Jordan retired for the first time, entering baseball, and the New York Knicks once again took the stage in the Finals, but after seven fierce games with the Houston Rockets, they once again squandered their hard-won chances to win the championship.
Jordan retired again in 1998, and before that, among the four centers, Ewing also had a comrade-in-arms, David Robinson, neither of whom had won a championship.
Sorry, Robinson this year, waited for an internal partner: Tim Duncan.
Ewing, who looked most like a hard bone, was always a little short of breath.
One loss can be said to be fate, two losses can be said to be luck, will not be able to fight, may be fate?
Not winning the championship is not terrible, what is terrible is the human heart.
The "King of New York" insisted for fifteen years, because he did not win the championship, in exchange for the merciless ridicule of New York fans. In the 2000-01 season, Ewing put on a supersonic jersey to play the last full season of his career, averaging 9.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, and the following year, the Magic still threw an olive branch to Ewing, and the 2-year 47.25 million contract was full of sincerity, but the serious knee injury forced the contract to be terminated early.
That year, the Magic had a very strong quarterback named Maddy.
Ewing never had another chance to prove himself.
At the 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony, Ewing, 46, was filled with emotion: "I have a great career — a champion in Georgetown and an Olympic gold medal. ”
At this moment, is he thinking of those glorious years?
A few years later, Houston came a Chinese kid named Yao Ming, and the team valued this center forward genius and hired him a teacher named Ewing.
The story of the NBA's four major centers has long been dusted.
In the current NBA, there is no such center, right?