“Michael Jordan vs Patrick Ewing began WAY before the NBA!”: A little throwback to the Bulls and Knicks legends in the golden era of college basketball

Arun Sharma | 22/03/2022
"Michael Jordan vs Patrick Ewing began WAY before the NBA!": A little throwback to the Bulls and Knicks legends in the golden era of college basketball

Michael Jordan was a household name before entering the NBA – such was his quality even in his college days.

In his trademark UNC blue and white uniform, Michael Jordan looked like every bit of the player he would become one day. A chain around his neck, tongue out while dunking, and no fear in his eyes. Not the tallest player on the court by any means, MJ wanted all the smoke against the taller guys. That’s where the rivalry between him and Patrick Ewing started.

Playing 3 years of college basketball against each other, Patrick Ewing was drafted a year after the Black Cat even though they were the same college class. The battle between Georgetown and North Carolina was the one nobody wanted to miss – to watch two future Hall of Famers battle it out against each other in college threads is an opportunity that rarely presents itself.

Their career trajectories were very similar – Coach Dean Smith wanted them to be at tryouts together. Though he got Jordan to pick UNC, Ewing went to Georgetown. The very next year, the two stalwarts clashed. Not just in any game, the NCAA title game. Jordan hit the game-winning jumper in a 63-62 win, and the rest is history.

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Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing was a match-up people loved to watch – their battles when Chicago played New York were legendary

After coming into the league, the personalities of the two behemoths could not be any different. While Jordan was vocal and open about his hunger for championships, the 7-foot gentle giant could not be more disenchanted with the glitz of New York. In his first four seasons, The Knicks had sub 500 seasons, and it looked like he was going to fade out quite quickly.

But the incoming of a young Shaquille O’Neal lit a fire under Patrick, who went on to play like his college self again. Jordan and Ewing once again faced off in a high-stakes game much like the 1982 title game in the 1991 playoffs. This time around, it wasn’t so tight, with the Bulls breezing past the Knicks in a 3-0 victory. They ended up Champions for the first time, and thus began the serial championship-blocker that Jordan became for the greats.

While they both had clashes facing each other, they were good friends off the court. The friendship that was almost initiated by Coach Smith in 1981, became a good one in the 1984 Olympics. They both went on to win gold and showed the world what a dominant force they could have been together.

Ironically, Jordan was the one wearing Converse sneakers all those years before moving to Nike, while it was the other way round with Ewing.

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Post Edited By: Tonoy Sengupta
Michael Jordan Patrick Ewing

About the author

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. A double degree holder and a digital marketer by trade, Arun has always been a sports buff. He fell in love with the sport of basketball at a young age and has been a Lakers fan since 2006. What started as a Kobe Bryant obsession slowly turned into a lifelong connection with the purple and gold. Arun has been an ardent subscriber to the Mamba mentality and has shed tears for a celebrity death only once in his life. He believes January 26, 2020, was the turning point in the passage of time because Kobe was the glue holding things together. From just a Lakers bandwagoner to a basketball fanatic, Arun has spent 16 long years growing up along with the league. He thinks Stephen Curry has ruined basketball forever, and the mid-range game is a sight to behold. Sharma also has many opinions about football (not the American kind), F1, MotoGP, tennis, and cricket.

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