There are two milestones Patrick Ewing failed to reach during his Hall of Fame career in the NBA. In 17 seasons as one of the NBA’s greatest centers, Ewing did not win a championship or a Most Valuable Player award.
Michael Jordan had a lot to do with Ewing not winning a championship, but Ewing believes he should have been an MVP – at least in 1989-90, regarded as his best season.
“When I was in college, I wasn’t known as a scorer,” Ewing told former New York Knicks teammate Mark Jackson during a recent appearance on the Sports Bio Corner podcast. “I was more of a defender, a shot-blocker, catching lobs. The 1990 Patrick Ewing? I should have been MVP. There were no double-teams back then. Everything was free-flowing. They couldn’t stop me.”
Ewing was 27 during the 1989-90 season, his fifth in the NBA. He had emerged into a major offensive threat for the Knicks, averaging a career-high 28.6 points and shooting 59 percent. Ewing also shot 77 percent at the free-throw line. The Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals but lost to Detroit in five games.
Ewing’s performance that year was a major factor in the Knicks’ success, but he finished fourth in MVP voting. Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson was voted MVP in 1990. Ewing was an MVP candidate eight times but never finished higher than fourth in balloting. In the three other seasons Ewing finished fourth in MVP voting, he lost out to Johnson (1989), Charles Barkley (1993) and David Robinson (1995).
Ewing believes the 1989-90 season was his best chance to win an MVP award. He compared his skills and numbers to MVP centers Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. Jokic is a three-time MVP (2021, 2022 and 2024). Embiid won MVP in 2023.
Ewing told Jackson he’s a fan of Jokic and Embiid, but he said his body of work was comparable, especially when comparing notes to Embiid.
“My numbers are just as good as theirs,” Ewing said of Jokic and Embiid. “I was just as athletic as Embiid. He’s bigger than me, but I could jump and shoot. I just didn’t shoot the ‘three’ like he does. It would have been some great battles going up against those two. Both are very good and talented and can do a lot of things. I take my hat off to them. I love watching them play.”
During Embiid’s MVP season, he averaged 33.1 points and 10.2 rebounds and shot 54 percent. In Jokic’s three MVP seasons, he averaged more than 27 points and 13 rebounds and never shot below 56 percent.
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