This Date in NBA History: New York Knicks Draft Patrick Ewing No. 1 in 1985

Photo credit: Focus on Sport 1995.

Forty years ago today, the New York Knicks drafted Patrick Ewing out of Georgetown University with the 1st pick in the 1985 NBA Draft. For the next 15 seasons, Ewing provided the Knicks with their franchise centerpiece after 10+ years between Willis Reed and Ewing’s arrival. 

Prior to his arrival at Georgetown, Ewing was a 2-time 1st team Parade All-American (1980, 1981) and was the McDonald’s High School Player of the Year in 1982 while at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Mass.

As a Georgetown Hoya, Ewing four times was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year (1982-1985) and twice was Big East Player of the Year (1984-85). In 1984, Ewing led the Hoyas to a 33-3 record and the National Championship with an 84-75 win over the Houston Cougars, securing the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Ewing was a 3-time All-American from 1983-1985 and in ‘85 was National Player of the Year. He averaged 3.6 blocks in his junior and senior seasons.

In 1984-85, the Knicks won 24 games under head coach Hubie Brown. Team star Bernard King led the NBA in scoring that season with 32.9 points per game. Ewing was the top pick of a draft that included his notable 1984 Olympic teammates Wayman Tisdale (2nd), and Chris Mullin (7th), as well as Hall of Famers Karl Malone (11th) and Joe Dumars (18th).

Ewing was an all-star as a rookie. Though the Knicks won just 23 games, he averaged 20.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. 

Ewing’s averages for the 1987-88 season were 20.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks as he was back in the All-Star Game. He was an all-star for the next nine seasons, through to the 1996-97 season. Over this period, he peaked at 28.6 points per game in 1989-90 and 12.1 rebounds in 1992-93. From the 1987-88 season through to the 1991-92 season, he averaged at least three blocks per game, including a career-high 4.0 in 1989-90. 

Six times, Ewing finished in the top five in MVP voting - 4th in ‘89, ‘93, and ‘95 and 5th in ‘90, ‘92, and ‘94. 

He led the Knicks to the 1994 NBA Finals against the Houston Rockets, where he set a then-Finals record for blocks in a Finals game, turning back eight shots in Game 5, a 91-84 Knick win. 

50-win seasons for the Knicks with Ewing

1988-89: 52-30 

1991-92: 51-31 

1992-93: 60-22 

1993-94: 57-25

1994-95: 55-27 

1996-97: 57-25

After four consecutive Eastern Conference Semifinal losses between 1995 and 1998, the Knicks finished 27-23 in the lockout season of 1998-99. Ewing, aged 36 going on 37, averaged 17.3 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game. Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell both averaged over 16 points - Sprewell 16.4 and Houston 16.3. They were a tough guard-forward duo, Sprewell a scorer and Houston one of the purest shooters in the game. The ‘98-‘99 Knicks, the eighth seed, made the NBA Finals where they lost 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs. In Game 2 of the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, Ewing tore his Achilles tendon. 

In September 2000, Ewing was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in a four-team deal that yielded the Knicks sharpshooter Glen Rice and former Chicago Bulls center Luc Longley. The trade followed a season in which the Knicks won 50 games, with Ewing averaging 15.0 points and 9.7 rebounds. 

Throughout his Knick tenure and his Hall of Fame career, Ewing was a big center who could shoot from the outside and block shots inside. He is one of the game’s best jump-shooting big men who could hit consistently. In 15 seasons as a Knick (he started all 1,039 games, playing at least 80 six times and 82 twice), Ewing’s averages were 22.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks on 50.8% shooting. He played 36.2 minutes per game.

In 2020, talking with Mad Dog Sports Radio’s Chris Russo, Jeff Van Gundy, who was a Knicks’ assistant from 1989-1996 before taking over as head coach from 1996-2001, gave some perspective on Ewing’s career.

“I think we have amnesia, sometimes, as Knick people, just to how good Ewing was and how well he played,” said Van Gundy five years ago. “If you're going to be compared to Jordan, then everybody's going to come up short.”

Since the trade Ewing in 2000, the Knicks have finished over the .500 mark just seven times. They went through a period in the 2000s where their roster included too many mirror-image guards and bad free agent contracts. Carmelo Anthony led the team to 54 wins in 2012-13, but the team proceeded to finish below .500 in the seven seasons thereafter, until 41 wins in 2020-21. International draft choice Kristaps Porzingis in 2016 gave fans hope, but after three seasons in New York, the team dealt him to the Dallas Mavericks in January of 2019. He missed all of 2018-19 with a torn ACL. 

The Knicks have lacked coaching continuity, too. Since Mike Woodson left in 2014, the organization has gone through six head coaches and are in search of one again after axing Tom Thibodeau after five seasons that included two seasons of 50+ wins (50 and 51) in 2023-24 and 2024-25. The Knicks made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025 behind star guard Jalen Brunson and fellow star Karl-Anthony Towns. It was the Knicks’ first Conference Final appearance in 25 seasons. Since Ewing’s departure, the organization has been searching for the sustained success that they had in the 1990s, and have long yearned for another championship as they have now gone 52 years without one after winning two in four years (1970, 1973).

At least 40 years ago today, they made a decision that helped them achieve some of the success that they had longed for since the ‘70s days of Walt Frazier and Willis Reed.