By the time Patrick Ewing entered the NBA as the top overall pick of the New York Knicks in 1985, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in the latter stages of his career. But even in those final few years, Abdul-Jabbar was still capable of some big nights, especially with his patented skyhook.
Ewing experienced this first-hand as well, telling a story about trying to warn then-Knicks coach Rick Pitino that Abdul-Jabbar was still someone who needed extra attention defensively.
“So Rick Pitino was our coach at this time, and we are getting ready to face the Lakers,” Ewing said during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show. “And Rick was like ‘No we’re not gonna double Kareem, he’s getting older’ and I’m like, ‘Rick, he may be getting older but he is still good.’ So Kareem got heated, he got hot. And I don’t care what I did I could push him to the 3-point line he still was rolling that skyhook and I said ‘Rick what did I tell you? We need to double him.’”
The skyhook is a shot that only Abdul-Jabbar was able to master and it led him to be the NBA’s greatest scorer, until LeBron James came along of course. But despite all of his accomplishments, both individually and team, Abdul-Jabbar doesn’t always get mentioned in those conversations about the greatest players of all-time, which Ewing doesn’t understand.
“When they talk about greatest of all-time, they very rarely put him (Kareem) in there, and what he did was special,” Ewing added. “He was 7’2 and he developed a shot that was virtually unstoppable. I remember when Pat Riley came to the Knicks he tried to get me to develop a skyhook I’m like ‘Coach, that is not my game. The Captain was special, that’s his thing. I’m a jump shooter’… I just didn’t get the feel of a skyhook, I was more of a jump hook guy. I used the jump hook as one of the pieces to my game.”
Ewing was far from alone in not being able to master that skyhook, but Abdul-Jabbar used it to the greatest success possible and the Lakers legend still stands high on the list of all-time greats because of it.
Lakers not expected to have best trade offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo
Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is expected to be on the move this offseason and the Lakers have been known to have interest in acquiring him. And while they have some trade assets, the Lakers are not expected to be able to compete with some of the best offers that can be made for Antetokounmpo this summer.
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