New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing said in a recent interview that Michael Jordan still talks trash to him about Ewing’s failure to beat Jordan in meaningful games.
Ewing appeared on ESPN’s “The Jump” this week, where he talked about Jordan and “The Last Dance” documentary.
The documentary’s most recent episodes showed a battle between the Knicks and the Bulls. In 1993, the Knicks held the best record in the East and held a 2-0 lead over the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.
But Jordan and the Bulls rebounded to beat the Knicks, crashing Ewing’s party.
The following year, Ewing and the Knicks defeated the Bulls in seven games in the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals — the first year of Jordan’s retirement.
“I played 17 years, and like you said, six years we played against the Bulls six times,” Ewing said on ESPN’s “The Jump” program. “We were only able to win one of those times, and unfortunately, he wasn’t there. So, he’s been talking trash from the first day that I met him, and he still continues to talk trash, telling me that I have never beaten him when it counts.”
According to the New York Post, “Ewing is remembered as one of the greatest players to never win a title.”
In the seventh episode of the series, Jordan talked about his competitive nature. He said he wants his teammates to be as competitive as he is. As I wrote for the Deseret News, Jordan teared up when discussing his competitive nature,
Jordan said, “Winning has a price. Leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. And I earned that right, because my teammates came after me. They didn’t endure all the things that I endured.”