Hmmm, I wonder…

After watching Kobe Bryant toss up bricks and throw away passes to Pau Gasol all series long, proving yet again that he is not in Michael Jordan’s class, I started thinking about some things. No, not about how a majority of my childhood sports’ memories are of MJ tormenting the Knicks (and for the record, the only fourth quarter memory I have of Scottie Pippen is him refusing to come into the game during the 4th quarter of Game 3 against the Knicks in the 1994 Eastern Conference Semi-finals, which Toni Kukoc won anyway with a fade-away jumper. F#@kin’ Bulls.) Instead, I was wondering what life would be like as a Knick fan if Patrick Ewing had been born in 1982 instead of 1962 and got a chance to play in today’s NBA. Other than Tim Duncan, there are no traditional, dominant big men in the NBA and, most importantly, there is no Michael Jordan. Give any Knick team from 91-92 to 94-95 (maybe even 96-97) a shot in today’s NBA and I’m pretty sure they would go 2-girls-one-cup on the rest of the NBA. A front-line of Ewing, Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley would be the most feared in the league. After a hard foul from Oak, a flagrant from Mase, and 3-consecutive blocked shots by Pat, the opposition wouldn’t be concerned so much about flopping to draw foul calls so much as faking an injury to get the hell out of the game. I mean there isn’t a team in today’s NBA that has anything close to the intimidation factor those old Knick squads had. Actually, today’s NBA is quite soft, and if you check the delivery manifest at every arena, you’ll find that each shipment of basketballs comes with a complimentary crate-full of tampons. I guess Patrick Ewing’s career shows that in addition to talent, you need a little bit o’ luck because if he played in these NBA Finals, he would’ve exposed KG for being the overgrown two-guard that he is.