When the hyper-opinionated Curry Kirkpatrick was writing on
basketball for Sports Illustrated, he held a particular loathing
for John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas because Thompson was
stand-offish (to say the least) with the media. Despite a few nice
cover photos of that era’s Hoyas in SI (including a wonderful posed
shot of Thompson, Patrick Ewing, and then-President Reagan),
Kirkpatrick’s bias seemed always to color the magazine’s coverage,
thus helping hype the image of those Hoyas as bad guys. (In fact,
other than super-aggressive freshman Michael Graham in 1983-84 —
who, by the way, later turned into a model citizen with help from
Thompson well into Graham’s 20s, long after Thompson had kicked him
off the team for academic reasons — those teams should in many
ways have served as role models. The players went to class, did
their work, graduated on time in record percentages — well above a
90 percent graduation rate — and avoided off-court trouble. As for
Ewing, somehow he was always portrayed as the bad guy, even though
he almost always was the one trying to play peacemaker, and he was
the victim, not the perpetrator, in the only real fight the Hoyas
ever had, when Syracuse’s Dwayne “Pearl” Washington sucker-punched
Ewing — as replays clearly showed — quite deliberately, in the
gut, for no apparent reason.)
Apparently, the bias continues. SI is out with its list of the
ten best all-time players in the NCAA tournament. Now, obviously,
any such list is going to engender debate and controversy from the
moment it comes out. It’s all subjective. But sometimes an omission
is so glaring that it must be noted. I’ll admit my own bias here: I
was sports editor of the Georgetown HOYA (college paper) at the
start of the season where GU won the national championship. Bias
aside, though, it boggles the mind that Patrick Ewing
somehow did not make SI’s list of top 10.
How could Ewing not make it? He led his team to three NCAA
finals in four years, winning one and losing the other two in
classic games by one and two points, respectively. Sure, he didn’t
score a ton of points in his title games — but Ewing was never
really about offense, anyway. His defense, intensity, and sheer
presence were what made him the dominant player of his era (Michael
Jordan included: His Tar Heels made only one Final Four in his
three seasons). That’s why Ewing was the Final Four MVP the year
his team won the national championship. In all of John Thompson,
Jr.’s years of coaching success, none of his teams ever made the
Final Four except those three featuring Ewing. As a college player
and team leader who made the entire team around him better, very
few people ever matched Ewing’s accomplishments. Was he the best
NCAA tourney player ever? Of course not. But Top 10? Definitely.
Indeed, there were games where the whole rest of his team all but
feel apart, but Ewing held them together — especially in a
first-round game against a tough SMU team, where only a Ewing
tip-in with 8 seconds remaining allowed the Hoyas to escape with a
37-36 win, en route to the national title.
So, one asks, who would be left off SI’s list to make room for
Ewing? (The list: Jerry West, Christian Laettner, Magic Johnson,
Bill Bradley, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, Bill
Russell, Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor.) Two spring to mind: Bradley
and Bird. Bird played in only one tournament, and didn’t win the
championship, falling by 11 points in the finals. Bradley’s
Princeton team made only one Final Four, and they lost in the
semis. Sure, neither team would have made it anywhere near as far
without being carried on Bird’s and Bradley’s respective backs. But
one Final Four appearance each, with no championship, vs. three
title appearances, with one championship and two last-second
losses? Come on. There’s no comparison. Again, this
isn’t about who had the best college or pro careers: It’s supposed
to be the list of the ten best NCAA tourney players. Ewing easily
belongs among the top five or six.
Curry Kirkpatrick accuse GU of having “Hoya Paranoia.” It’s not
paranoia if it’s based on truth — and the truth was, Ewing’s Hoyas
had much to be paranoid about, because the national media wouldn’t
give them an even break then, and still won’t do so today.
—————-
Okay, how’ that for a quick break from politics? :)
