| 22 November 2011
It’s a good thing Patrick Ewing Jr. has plenty of practice in being patient and persevering.
He’s relying on both these days as the NBA lockout lingers on and his future overseas remains up in the air.
Before finishing last season with the New Orleans Hornets, Ewing endured being waived, D-League stints, a knee injury, summer league cuts and multiple trades ever since the 6-foot-8 out of Georgetown was drafted by the Sacramento Kings 43rd overall in the 2008 NBA Draft.
Then came a 10-day contract with the Hornets.
Then came an extension through the rest of the season and shot at returning to New Orleans to start the 2011-2012 NBA season fresh, or at least Ewing had hoped.
Failed negotiations between the league and players over the last few months changed those plans. Since then, players across the league have moved on to Plan B, which translates to finding work and cutting a check playing overseas. But what happens when Plan B stalls and you’re in jeopardy of not finding a home for a season –- maybe even longer?
It’s a reality Ewing now faces.
Last month Ewing was in preliminary discussions with a team in Germany’s 18-team Beko Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). And while he did not specify which team (believed to be FC Bayern in Munich, Germany, where his former Hoyas teammate John Wallace is a point guard), those talks did not translate into a done deal.
“The deal with that team fell through,” Ewing told Beyond the Beat.
“I'll go anywhere more or less. I just want to play.”
After everything, Ewing finally lands an NBA roster spot only to have a work stoppage prevent him from going about his work in the league.
From Sacramento, Ewing was traded twice over to the Houston Rockets and eventually the New York Knicks where he was subsequently waived prior to the start of the 2008-09 season. He then found a home in the D-League with the Reno Bighorns and refined his game averaging 16.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.
Then hard luck struck.
In March 2009, Reno waived Ewing after he suffered an MCL (medial collateral ligament) sprain. Thankfully, surgery was not needed and two summer league stints followed – with the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic – before a healthy Ewing re-signed in Reno. Later that season he was traded to the Sioux Falls Skyforce and between the two teams, averaged 17.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists, and was selected to the D-League All-Star team.
He finally caught a break with the New Orleans Hornets last season.
The Hornets signed him to a 10-day contract after David West tore his ACL in his left knee in late March, and later extended Ewing’s contract through the remainder of the 2010-11 season.
He appeared in 7 games, playing spot minutes even in the postseason against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, Ewing is not sure where he goes from here.
“Honestly I have no idea. I haven't talked to my agent all week”, said Ewing, who is represented by FAME (Falk Associates Management Enterprises), the agency once owned by mega-agent David Falk.
“I assume with the market getting flooded with all the players trying to go [to Europe] that most of the teams are probably trying to decide which of the top players are serious about going, then working their way down the line.”
That’s one theory. Here’s another: the 27-year-old Ewing may have a better chance at finding a gig overseas before “the top players”.
Taking a look at the number of NBA players who have made the jump overseas to play during the lockout, the majority of players are actually rank and file types much like Ewing more so than upper echelon all-star talent like Deron Williams (Besiktas - Turkey), Tony Parker (ASVEL - France) and Andrei Kirilenko (CSKA Moscow – Russia). Factor in the hefty insurance policies teams in Europe are covering (Parker is paying his own insurance with ASVEL, a team he owns 20% stake in), and you might find New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing’s son playing abroad before Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard.
Until then, Ewing waits patiently and relies on his deep-rooted faith in keeping hope alive, even away from the game.
“I can always go and volunteer at a school or something. I have a degree. I can always find something to do until I find a team,” said Ewing, who graduated from Georgetown with a degree in English.
“Of course, that’s (basketball) my passion…but I’m not too concerned."
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