One can only wonder how a single move could have changed the course of NBA history forever. A trade, a draft pick, a signing could have changed the entire narrative about how we view some players or teams nowadays, and that’s just fascinating.
Let’s take Patrick Ewing for example. Ewing is considered by most as the greatest player in New York Knicks history. However, he’s not often mentioned in the GOAT conversation because he lost in the NBA Finals twice and couldn’t win a ring during the Michael Jordan era.
Let’s take a look at the Golden State Warriors now. For years, they struggled to compete at the highest level and lost countless fans to the Los Angeles Lakers until the Splash Brothers era restored the order and made them one of the NBA’s biggest powerhouses.
Little did we know that things could have been completely different, as the Warriors and Ewing could’ve helped each other out during the ‘Run TMC’ era. Apparently, back in the late-80’s, Ewing was actually considering leaving The Big Apple to join the Warriors, as he recently told Ryan Hollins in his Podcast:
“I was thinking about Golden State. Me, Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway. I thought about doing that but it didn’t work out so I stayed in New York,” Ewing confessed.
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Una publicación compartida de Ryan Hollins (@ryanhollins) el 9 Nov, 2020 a las 1:40 PST
That kind of overpowered team would have destroyed the rest of the league, that’s for sure. The Warriors wouldn’t have broken up their deadly trio in 1991, and Patrick Ewing would have at least one ring under his belt to cement his legacy.
It’s funny how things turn out in the NBA most of the time. Where would we rank Ewing if he had won 2 or 3 rings? Would the Golden State Warriors be a competitive franchise and a prime destination for free agents over the past 3 decades? I guess we’ll never know.
