Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing surprisingly had no love lost between them as fierce Eastern Conference rivals. MJ and Ewing went head-to-head in five playoff series in the late 80s and early 90s, but the New York Knicks legend had no answer for Air Jordan and his Bulls. Jordan threw a wrench in Ewing’s NBA title plans numerous times. Despite such an intense rivalry, the Bulls legend ended up pushing Ewing toward coaching after retirement.
Pat Ewing recently appeared on his former teammate Mark Jackson’s podcast to talk basketball. While talking about his future plans as a coach, the 61-year-old revealed how his former rival helped him enter the coaching space. As it turns out, when Michael Jordan was working as an executive with the Washington Wizards, he had Ewing installed as the Assistant Coach of the team.
The discussion was triggered when Jackson asked the former Georgetown Hoyas coach about still having the desire to coach. Ewing responded with a firm “Yeah”. After talking about the desire to coach “his kids”, the former Knicks Center segued into how Michael Jordan provided the trigger point for his coaching career.
“I was given an opportunity through Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was running the Wizards at the time and when I decided to retire, he gave me the opportunity to come to Washington and try coaching,” Ewing told Mark Jackson and his son Bluu.
Pat Ewing “fell in love” with coaching after his experience with the 2002-03 Wizards coaching staff, which had Doug Collins at the helm. After sitting among some of the best coaches in NBA history, Ewing embarked on a memorable post-playing journey.
Patrick Ewing: The Coach
Patrick Ewing has spent 15 years as an assistant coach in the NBA. After the solitary 2002-03 season with the Wizards, the Knicks legend went to the Houston Rockets, per Basketball Reference. During his Rockets tenure, he spent four years under HC Jeff Van Gundy.
Interestingly, he served his next five years under Jeff’s brother Stan Van Gundy for the Dwight Howard-led Orlando Magic. After a 2007-12 stint with the Magic, the Georgetown alum went back to a coaching staff set up by Michael Jordan. He joined then MJ-owned Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets and worked under Steve Clifford for four years.
Finally, his alma mater Georgetown Hoyas hired him as the Head Coach in 2017.
He inherited a 14-18 win team from John Thompson III and improved the Hoyas to a 15-15 record during the 2017-18 NCAA season. Meanwhile, during the 2018-19 season, the team impressively fetched a 19-14 record. During the next two seasons, the team returned to being a sub-50% win team
However, things got out of hand after the 2020-21 season, when they won the Big East tournament and made it to the NCAA tournament. During the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, the Hoyas lost 37 out of 50 games and suffered a 29-game Big East losing streak in the middle. Thus, Ewing had to leave his Hoyas job and will have to restart his coaching journey again.
