When I decided to create these player pages, I told myself I would start with Hall of Famers. If I ever ran out, I would move on to players with multiple All-Star appearances.
Well, our next player is someone NBA 2K named a Hall of Famer, but based on his résumé in Rewritten Rings, I'm not so sure he deserves that honor. By the end of this article, let me know whether you think I'm right or wrong.
Like Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing spent his entire career in our universe, and we rewrote everything. With Michael Jordan out of the picture during the 1980s and 1990s, the Chicago Bulls needed to find a different generational talent.
That talent wouldn't arrive in 1984. The Bulls fell to the eighth pick and selected Jerome Kersey, a far cry from the superstar they would have landed in Jordan in reality. But the following year, Chicago won the No. 1 overall pick, giving the franchise another opportunity to change its future.
With that first pick, the Bulls selected Patrick Ewing, just as the New York Knicks did in reality. The difference? Ewing was headed to Chicago instead of New York.
In real life, Ewing became one of the greatest centers ever, leading the Knicks to two NBA Finals appearances. Both came after Jordan had retired, in 1994 and 1999, but neither ended with a championship.
Ewing came close to reaching the mountaintop, only to fall short both times. In a world without the greatest player of all time during those years, could Ewing finally collect a few rings of his own?
His career got off to a promising start. As a rookie, Ewing accomplished something Jordan couldn't even do in his first season: win a playoff series. The newly crowned Rookie of the Year led the Bulls past the higher-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in a three-game sweep.
Chicago's run ended in the next round against the defending champion Boston Celtics, who eliminated the Bulls in five games. Still, the future looked bright. Ewing had arrived, Chicago had its franchise center, and the team had already won a playoff series. The next step seemed obvious.
Unfortunately, Ewing suffered an injury the following season, and the Bulls missed the playoffs entirely.
In 1988, Ewing returned, and Chicago was back in the postseason as the seventh seed. Once again, the Bulls faced Milwaukee, and once again, Ewing led them to victory. But in the Semifinals, they ran into the defending champion Philadelphia 76ers, led by Charles Barkley, who eliminated Chicago in five games.
No big deal, right? Ewing had reached the Semifinals twice in his first three seasons, and both times he had been eliminated by the defending champions. He was still young, and it seemed like only a matter of time before he took the next step.
In 1989, the Bulls were eliminated in the first round by the defending champion Washington Bullets, led by John Stockton and Clyde Drexler. The following year, Chicago ran into a rising Cleveland Cavaliers team featuring Dominique Wilkins, David Robinson, and Joe Dumars.
Cleveland was the No. 1 seed, and if not for an injury to Wilkins in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers might have gone on to win the championship.
Think about that for a moment. In his first four playoff appearances, Ewing and the Bulls had been eliminated by three defending champions and one Cleveland powerhouse that could have won it all. The competition was tough, but at some point, a superstar has to find a way to break through.
You had to trust the process, right?
Well, 1991 brought another season without playoff basketball in Chicago. The same thing happened in 1992. After showing promise early in his career, Ewing and the Bulls had now missed the postseason in consecutive years.
Chicago finally returned in 1993, facing Robinson and the Cavaliers again. This time, Ewing pushed Cleveland to a decisive Game 5 in the first round, but the Bulls came up short. The Cavaliers went on to win the championship.
By this point, you could make the argument that Ewing simply hadn't caught a break. He was repeatedly running into elite teams, including a couple that went on to win championships. But in 1994, his Bulls lost a playoff series to a team that wouldn't even make the Conference Finals that year, the Boston Celtics.
Chicago finished as the fifth seed and fell to fourth-seeded Boston in another decisive Game 5. The Celtics had made a major move back in the 1989 draft, trading Kevin McHale for the No. 1 pick and selecting Shawn Kemp. Kemp helped Boston return to the NBA Finals during his rookie season and later became a two-time champion alongside Shaquille O'Neal in Orlando.
That raises an interesting question: What might Ewing's career have looked like if the Bulls had landed Kemp instead? Could a different running mate have changed Chicago's fortunes?
The next two seasons brought more of the same. In 1995, Reggie Miller and the New Jersey Nets swept the Bulls out of the first round. In 1996, it was Penny Hardaway, Scottie Pippen, and the Milwaukee Bucks who sent Chicago home in another sweep.
That last defeat had to sting. Pippen, who helped Jordan win championships in reality, was now helping another team eliminate the Bulls. Chicago's search for postseason success had become a frustrating cycle of early exits, and the franchise appeared to be running out of patience.
In 1997, the Bulls missed the playoffs again. The following offseason, Chicago finally traded its All-Star center and decided to start over. After years of trying to build around Ewing, the franchise was ready to move in another direction.
Ewing landed with the Houston Rockets, who entered the 1998 playoffs as the sixth seed. Their opponent was the defending Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers. Unfortunately, the change of scenery didn't change the outcome. Houston lost in the first round, extending Ewing's postseason frustrations.
In 1999, Ewing joined the Los Angeles Lakers, a team featuring Tim Duncan and Vlade Divac. For the first time in his career, he was no longer the centerpiece of the franchise, coming off the bench instead. But surely joining a talented Lakers team would finally give him a chance to make a deep playoff run.
Even as the favored team, Los Angeles couldn't get past the first round. The fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks, led by Gary Payton and Dirk Nowitzki, upset the Lakers. Dallas then continued its surprising run by eliminating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Semifinals and advancing to the Conference Finals.
Ewing had changed teams, changed roles, and joined a stronger supporting cast, yet the result remained the same.
The Lakers entered the 2000 playoffs as the third seed, giving Ewing the best team he'd played for ever. Once again, they faced Dallas. Once again, they lost. The first-round drought that had started in 1989 continued, and Ewing was running out of time to change the narrative of his career.
For his final season, Ewing joined the Portland Trail Blazers. As the sixth seed, Portland faced the Minnesota Timberwolves and was swept. Meanwhile, the Lakers finished first and swept Houston in the opening round before advancing to the Semifinals. Had Ewing stayed in Los Angeles, could he finally have broken the curse?
We'll never know. The Lakers were swept by Alonzo Mourning and Minnesota in the Semifinals, as the Timberwolves continued all the way to the NBA Finals. Even at the end of his career, Ewing found himself defeated by teams, who eventually made a deep playoff run.
Ewing retired in 2001 as a 10-time All-Star, with his number retired by the Chicago Bulls. In reality, he earned one more All-Star selection and enjoyed several deep playoff runs with the Knicks, including two trips to the NBA Finals. But he never won a championship there, either.
In Rewritten Rings, his legacy is even more complicated. He had an impressive start, winning Rookie of the Year and leading Chicago to two Semifinal appearances in his first three seasons. But after that, the story became one of missed opportunities, early playoff exits, and years spent searching for a team that could take him further.
There is another player whose career offers an interesting comparison: Pistol Pete Maravich. Maravich spent most of his career unable to get beyond the first round, but he finally helped the Celtics reach the Eastern Conference Finals in his final season.
The circumstances matter, though. In 1980, the higher-seeded teams received a first-round bye, meaning Boston needed to win just one series to reach the Conference Finals. Still, Maravich got one deep playoff run to add to his Hall of Fame legacy.
Ewing's story went the other way. He showed promise early, reaching the Semifinals twice in his first three seasons, but never got back there again. Maravich had a late-career breakthrough; Ewing never found his.
Outside those first two playoff appearances, Ewing will forever be remembered in our universe as the Hall of Famer who couldn't get out of the first round.
And that brings us back to the question I raised at the beginning. Should Patrick Ewing really be in the Hall of Fame in Rewritten Rings, especially when NBA 2K didn't give that honor to players like John Stockton and Clyde Drexler, who had comparable All-Star recognition and won championships?
In our universe, he never won a championship, never even reached a Conference Finals, and spent most of his career unable to get past the opening round of the playoffs.
So what do you think? Does Patrick Ewing deserve his place in the Hall of Fame, or should players like Stockton and Drexler have been honored ahead of him? Let me know, because this is one Hall of Fame debate where I genuinely want to hear your opinion.
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