Patrick Ewing wants a return to New York Knicks as a head coach – NBA Update
Patrick Ewing is synonymous with the New York Knicks. The former centre played the vast majority of his career as a Knick and he still has great affection for the franchise. Therefore it came as no surprise when the current Orlando
Magic assistant coach declared that he wanted to return to his favoured club as their head coach.
“I hope that one day I get to come back home because I do live in this area, I still consider this my area, I still consider myself a Knick. Hopefully one day I’ll be brought back here,” Ewing said.
Ewing is a Knicks legend and all time leading scorer. He played for the Magic for one season and is now a coach there, but his heart has always been in New York. The New York Knicks fans would certainly welcome him if eventually
the move did happen.
Currently though Mike D’Antoni is firmly established in the New York Knicks hot seat and doesn’t look like leaving any time soon. Mike showed some good results with New York’s recently assembled star duo of Carmelo Anthony and
Amar’e Stoudemire as the team reached the playoffs. They were humbled by the Boston Celtics in the first round but it has to be taken into account that the team hasn’t played together too much and was crippled due to injuries.
For his part Ewing has built up a good reputation on Orlando’s sidelines and looks set to move to a head coaching spot sooner or later. He has overseen the development of Dwight Howard into the most dominant centre in the NBA and
received credit for his work.
The former Knicks centre has been around the league this summer trying to land a head coaching job, which would make him the tallest NBA head coach in history. Ewing interviewed with the Detroit Pistons most recently before the
franchise decided to hire former New Jersey Nets head coach Lawrence Frank.
The fact that he can’t immediately get a head coaching job has frustrated Patrick, who believes his height is working against him in this case,
“People think that just because you’re a centre, you’re not as smart as the guards or the smaller guys. I think that’s a load of c**p. When I played with the Knicks, I was just as important or just as smart as any other of the
guards I played with. I still had to call out plays, notice schemes, know the systems, do everything they had to do.”
Patrick does have a point and if, or when, he does land a head coaching stint in the NBA, smart money is on him to break that stereotype.
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