The Knicks were set to tip off the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday, and Patrick Ewing did not soften the stakes. He called it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and said no one knows when, or if, it will come around again.
“What I would tell them is they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ewing said. The longtime Knicks center added that when New York reached the conference finals in 1994, he believed another chance would follow in 1995. This time, he said, the lesson is to treat the moment like it may not return.
Ewing’s comments came in a playoff Q&A that tied the current team to the franchise’s earlier pursuit of a title. The Knicks’ goal at the start of the year, he said, was to win a championship, and they have now gotten close enough to make the chase feel real. He said the team has been hot in its last two rounds and has earned the right to keep pressing forward.
But Ewing’s message was not about individual brilliance. It was about keeping the group connected. The Knicks, he said, should continue to play as a team, with the five players on the floor and the bench both doing their part. The game, he said, is not tennis. It is not one person against another person. New York, he said, still has to take care of business offensively and defensively and avoid turnovers.
That balance, Ewing said, is the reason he believes the Knicks can keep winning now. “Anything is possible,” he said when asked why they can win an NBA championship. He said the team has been putting in the work and the coaches have put them in great positions to reach the goal. The task now is to keep carrying that over under the pressure that comes with the conference finals.
He also pointed to the support around the team, and to what a title would mean beyond the floor. Ewing said the whole city and the whole state would be proud if the Knicks won it all, and he said the whole city would go wild. He linked that reaction to what New Yorkers have already shown during the first two rounds, and to the way fans have responded when other local teams have won championships.
Ewing’s praise for Jalen Brunson was just as direct. “Jalen is one of the most talented players that I’ve seen play,” he said, adding that Brunson can pass the ball and take over a game. He said he was not fortunate enough to play with a talent like Brunson and that having him as a teammate would have made his own job easier.
He said Karl-Anthony Towns and Brunson have been doing an outstanding job of learning each other, with Towns serving as a facilitator and looking to score when the chance is there. Both players, Ewing said, have to keep doing their part if the Knicks are going to win. He said Brunson has been the Knicks’ best player over the last two series, scoring and playing great defense, while the entire team has helped the club get this far.
Ewing also drew a line back to one of his old teammates. Asked about Josh Hart, he said, “He definitely does,” when asked if Hart reminds him of John Starks. He said Starks was a better shooter, but that Hart wears his emotions on his sleeve. It was the kind of comparison that made the current run feel connected to another era, even as the Knicks prepared for the next test in front of them.
For New York, the challenge is simple and enormous at the same time: keep playing as a team, keep the turnovers down and keep the title chase alive long enough for the opportunity Ewing described to become something more than a memory.
