Legendary Center Named Knicks Olympic Goat

With the Paris Olympics in full swing, the New York Knicks don’t currently have a player competing on the roster. However, that is a change from the past and many Knicks have taken part in the world’s biggest stage for athletics.

NBA players weren’t allowed to play until 1992 when the Dream Team was formed. The Dream Team took home gold at Barcelona, starting a trend for the United States to win all but one gold medal since.

Knicks icon Patrick Ewing was part of that 1992 squad and also won gold as an amateur in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, making him the certified Knicks Olympics GOAT by Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey.

“Patrick Ewing competed in both the pre-professionals Olympics in 1984 and in the 1992 games as a member of the Dream Team,” Bailey writes. “And on both teams, Ewing was Team USA’s most productive true center. Over the course of both tournaments, he averaged 10.3 points and 5.4 rebounds, while shooting 62.3 percent from the field. And of course, both of those runs ended with gold medals for the Americans.”

Ewing’s biggest accomplishments in his career have included those gold medals since he was unable to capture an NCAA or NBA championship despite coming up close on both levels.

Ewing was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft by the Knicks out of Georgetown and he played 15 years with the team until 2000 when he was traded in a four-team deal to the Seattle SuperSonics. During his time with the Knicks, they made the playoffs every year from 1988-2000, serving as a mainstay for a fruitful part of franchise history.

While the Knicks never won the championship with Ewing as the face of the franchise, he is still regarded as one of the best players in the team’s history, and his Olympic achievements are part of his story and success.

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