European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 26 b the stars and stripes saturday february 16,1991commentary i Colin up never figure out Why Patrick Ewing has not taken Over the game of basketball. I mean i had seen this script before. Wilt Chamberlain came out of the ranks of the Harlem globetrotters and into the Aba and if it weren to for Bill Russell would have swallowed the game whole. How else would you Bias sift 100 Points in one Pight a 50.4 average one season More than 35,000 Points lifetime including playoffs then there was Kareem about Jabbar a 45,000 Points if you wanted to include playoffs relatively modest nightly averages but such an intimidating Factor the payoff was a virtual championship or near miss. A / try there was Nate Thurmond who had a havoc wreaking career in the san Francisco Pivot Willis Reed in new York bbb Lanier in Detroit and Milwaukee. There were other great players Walt Frazier Oscar Robertson Hal Greer Guy Rodgers Earl Monroe but they seemed to be along for the ride. They went and got the Ball so the big Guys could fire it nth the baskets. They were like Guys carrying ammunition to the battleships big game was a simple proposition. Big Man in the Pivot Quick guard to bring the Ball up court. Shoot and fall Back. A of they legislated against this game they tried to Stop the big Guy camping in the Middle for the easy Layup. They put in the three second Rule they outlawed the moving picks. But it was a big Many a game. Patrick Ewing looked like six world championships to the new York kicks when they won him in the league lottery. Big 7 fee Mobile he could run shoot Block rebound. A new Goliath. He turned out More a new Gulliver. Patrick Ewing has been with the kicks nearly six years. But the championship a tunes have people such As Isiah Thomas 6-1 and Joe Dumars 6-3 or Larry Bird 6-9 or magic Johnson 6-9 in them. Has. The game changed Well you done to go to the line after every foul anymore you done to get three to make two there a something called a a a Loose balls foul which is an invitation to felonious assault a License to swarm. But what has really happened in the View of Patrick Ewing is that the basketball floors Are crowded with Superior athletes today a the pick of 10,000 playgrounds and High school gyms. Your big Man in the Post does no to go cruising Down the floor anymore like the battleship Missouri through a Fleet of samoans. He can to take the Ball and dip it through Basket after Basket. He is harassed hounded harried. He is thrown out of his rhythm. The pros Call it ,7�?T but it is really the basketball equivalent of gang tackling. A a a a it is on the whole a refreshing development. It makes it a five Man game instead of a one Man game. Twenty years ago Patrick Ewing would have had to worry mainly on the nights he played Bill Russeli or Wilt Chamberlain. The other games would have been Jim Murray complicated shoot arounds. Today he has 26 other teams to worry about. A one Man team holds no terror for the league anymore. In the old Days Chamberlain would have been Able to a turn in a a it basketball term for being Able to just lean Over the Center and help yours of to easy two pointers Over two thirds of the centers in the today the basketball strategists Cope with the problem two ways. They concede the league bully his 26 Points a game Patrick Ewing a average and Stop the rest of the team. Or if they want to they Stop him too a a a Quot a a. A a Wilt Chamberlain probably scored More 3-foot baskets than anyone. Patrick Ewing is rarely that close to the Basket. The new York kicks Are not to be confused with the Bob . Jones celtics or even the Abdul Jabbar magic Johnson lakers. But neither Are they the Charlotte hornets. They played a determined Clipper team at the sports Arena recently and the clippers task was a Clear. They set their own Battle Wagon Benoit Benjamin just As tall and 20 pounds heavier than Ewing on the new York top gun. Ben bit did a career bests he huffed and puffed after Ewing like a Bill collector. He pushed himself into Ewing a face so often that he fouled out with almost a minute to play. He had done things to Ewing that would have gotten him arrested out on the Street. His leaving the game had As much to do As anything with the fact that the suddenly liberated Ewing was Able to. Send the game into overtime by in effect turning in on Benoit a successors and tying the game with a Basket with seconds to go in regulation. The interesting Point is none of the clippers measures was Able to Stop Ewing from scoring 44 Points. And those 44 Points weren to enough to win the game by anything but a one Point margin a in overtime. Its not As if Ewing in t a Force. He scored 2,347 Points last season had a game High of 51, had 893 rebounds and 327 blocked shots. But the team finished third. This year Ewing is anchoring a team that was 2l28 heading into Friday nights game. A you have to understand this league has better athletes than it has Ever had or that it had in another Era a Ewing was explaining As he sat in the locker room after the clippers game Knees encased in inc packs. A i am not taking anything away from the chamberlains. I am sure Witt would be a great player in any Era. I am just not sure anybody can walk Over the players we have out Here today. Patrick Ewing is the Center of a Nicks attention. A i done to feel i m carrying this team on my Back. I told them when 1 came Over Here i Wasny to a Savior. I was a key player but it takes five it is considered a Rule of thumb in pro football that if a passer has to throw 50 or More passes his team loses. In the declining years of his career stung by criticism that his scoring highs did More for Chamberlain than the team Wilt became More pass off conscious and his scoring average fell to 13.2. His Point total dropped from 4,029 in 1962 to 1,084 in i973. Did Patrick Ewing feel a 40-Point night was counter productive a a i never set goals. My main goal is winning the championship. To do that you find the open Man. Sometimes in a the open his coach John Macleod stood to one Side. A the Days of the big Man doing it by himself Are gone. You have to be Able to kick the Ball Back out there. And if you kick it Back out to a magic Johnson or a James worthy or an Isiah Thomas you la find yourself losing your if Patrick Ewing could lose his crowd on the court he would become one himself a and become what everyone expected he would be a the dominating Force in the league and the logical successor to the court despots of the past. A the to a Kings Hrudney sparkles in his a by the associated press Edmonton Alberta a Edmonton native Kelly Hrudney put on a Good show for the Home folks. Unfortunately for the sellout crowd at the North lands coliseum Hrudney was playing for the los Angeles Kings Hrudney made1 several spectacular stops among his 31 saves and Edmonton goal tender Bill a Iran Ford was burned twice on displays As the los Angeles Kings beat the oilers 4-2 thursday night. Ranford a first Gaffe came late in the second period when he tried to puck during a Power play but shot it right to Marty Mcsorley the sex Oiler was wide with his first shot but Wayne Gretzky retrieved thenal puck and Mcsorley did no to miss on the second try breaking a 2-2 tie at 14 29 of the second period. The Kings made it 4-2 Early in the third period when Ranford fell while trying to get across the crease and Rod Buskas scored on a slap shot. In other games thursday night blues 3, canucks 2 Vancouver a British Columbia a Brett Hull passed the 60-goal plateau for the second straight season scoring twice to Lead the red hot blues past Vancouver Hull scored his 60th goal of the tie the score 1-1 in the second period there broke a 2-2 tie with no. 61 at 2 46 of the third giving him goals in six straight games. Adam Oates assisted on All three blues goals to extend his scoring Streak to 11 games during which he has 32 Points. Blackhawks2, Nordques 1, Chicago a Jeremy Roenicke a goal i-6 into overtime spoiled a 46-save Effort by. Quebec Rookie Stephane Fiset As Chicago beat the Nordques. Roenik scored his 30th goal of the season when he knocked the rebound of Trent Yawney a shot fro the Point past 5, islanders 2 Pittsburgh John Cullen Mario Lemieux and Job Eurcy scored third period goals As Pittsburgh won its seventh straight Home game and snapped a three game losing Streak. Quot a Cullen broke a 2-2 tie at 2 47 of the third period with his 26th goal picking up Larry Murphy a pass and firing a 25-footer past Glenn Healy. Lemieux had his fifth at 15 09 and erred scored shorthanded into an empty net with 23 seconds left. Devils 3, jets 3 East Rutherford . Mark Osborne s tip in with 1 29 to play in regulation gave Winnipeg a tie with new Jersey. Osborne deflected Paul Macdermid s Cross ice pass Over Sean Burke for the tying goal spoiling burkes 38-save Effort. T
