“I probably should have ended my career in New York” – Patrick Ewing admits he regrets leaving the Knicks even though he left out of frustration originally appeared on Basketball Network.
For over a decade, Patrick Ewing was the face of the New York Knicks. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, he was the foundation of Madison Square Garden’s electric nights and was the leader of one of the toughest teams of that era.
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He carried the team deep into the playoffs, often against dominant teams like Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Reggie Miller’s Indiana Pacers. He spent 15 seasons defining New York basketball and became a legend.
Leaving New York
In 2000, Ewing’s tenure at New York came to a sudden and bittersweet close. He was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics. It shocked fans. It left a permanent crease in his legacy that he later admitted he wished had been smoothed out differently.
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“There’s some things you’d do differently and I guess one of ’em would be I guess open up more to the fans and the media,” Ewing said. “But that’s it. I thought I had a great career, a great life in New York, and I probably should have ended my career in New York instead of going elsewhere.”
Ewing was past his prime, but his game hadn’t vanished. Even in the twilight of his career, he remained a valuable big man, capable of anchoring a defense and punishing opponents in the paint.
However, some believed the Knicks’ championship hopes were fading with him still at the helm, that the team needed a new direction to move past its Eastern Conference runner-up status, and that Ewing, who had given everything to the franchise, found himself at a crossroads.
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Ewing was never the most openly expressive player during his Knicks years. He spoke through his work on the court, the rebounds ripped from opponents’ hands, the blocks swatted into the stands, and the baseline jumpers that became his signature. His years in New York made him a Hall of Famer. He carried the Knicks through a bruising Eastern Conference era.
Ewing’s legacy
His frustration with the franchise didn’t come out of the blue. He spent a decade and a half hearing that his presence was the obstacle rather than the engine of the franchise.
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The late ’90s were a complicated time for the Knicks. Injuries slowed him, and younger players were emerging. The franchise, under pressure to evolve, began entertaining ideas that seemed unthinkable a few years prior.
“Well, I asked to be traded,” Ewing said. “I just got tired of hearing all the rumblings that ‘the team is better off without him,’ ‘he’s holdin’ ’em back,’ after hearing that for 15 years, at some point you get tired of it. You feel like hey, you did your best to help this team or help build this team to what it is, and if your services is not required anymore, you go to greener pastures.”
The trade to Seattle was intended as a fresh chapter, but it carried none of the emotional resonance of his New York years. A season later, he would move again, this time to the Orlando Magic, before retiring in 2002. The scenery changed, but the connection to his original basketball home never faded.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 10, 2025, where it first appeared.