Derek

Who should the Knicks have drafted in 1985? My dad recently brought this up, and he feels the Knicks would have been better off with Mullin.

Hoopla

Ewing may not have reached the expectations many had for him coming out of Georgetown, but he was clearly a better player than Mullin.

Derek

In the long run, Mullin ended up injury-prone, so Ewing was the right choice. At least, that's what I think. Over the course of his career, Mullin only played in 77% of his team's games, as opposed to Ewing, who played in just under 87%. Perhaps Mullin's injuries kept him from reaching many people's expectations?

Also, Golden State management screwed up in that year's draft. They passed up on guys like Detlef Schrempf, Charles Oakley, Karl Malone, and A.C. Green.

BadBaronRudigor

With all due respect to your Dad, BULL!

(1) Offensively, Ewing interior scoring more than matched Mullin's outside shooting and his offensive rebounding skills compensate for Mullins far superior passing.

(2) Defensively it is a blowout. Ewing was an excellent, passionate defender; Mullin was a stiff.

(3) Positionally, it is much harder to find a dominant center than a top wing scorer and Ewing was just that.

(4) Finally, Ewing's peak was longer, his leadership skills were better, he was just a much better player than Mullin.

Whether Stern was slipped a cold envelop or not, NY's getting Ewing made them a contender for a decade, Mullin wasn't that caliber of player.

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jericho

Yep, yep, yep, and I'm not sure.

I agree it's not even close. Ewing may not be at the top of the list of all-time greats, but he's on the list. Mullin's on the list of all-time really goods.

kflo

should be asking about the 5 other teams that passed him up rather than the knicks.

mullin did beat patrick out for national player of the year in a bunch of polls in '85 (they basically split the major awards, but mullin did win the wooden award). '85 was a sick year for the big east.

mullin's prime essentially ended the year before patrick lead the knicks to the finals. ewing's the most important player in franchise history (imo). mullin was a superb player, but even his 4.5 year peak wasn't as good as ewing.

ewing's underrated at this point, because of where he ranks relative to his peer group (hakeem, shaq, robinson), which happens to be the top peer group of all time. but he's a top 25 player, arguably top 20 all-time.

JPSeraph

They should have gone with Karl Malone!

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SirCharles34

It's easy to say that now, but all those players flew below everyone's radar at the time, not only Golden State.

First of all, let me remind people that Golden State got jobbed in that draft because that was the 1st year the NBA institued a draft lottery; otherwise, the Warriors should've ended up with Patrick Ewing. They had the #1 pick that year. That draft lottery wasn't fair to the worst team like it is today with the most ping pong balls going to the worst team. Back then each team of eight had only one shot at getting the top pick and that lucky team was the Knicks.

There's no question that the Knicks should've drafted Ewing. Good big men, even back then was hard to come by. True, Mullin won a lot of the national collegiate awards, but so did Christian Laettner over Shaq. It doesn't mean a thing.

JuniorNoboa

Was your dad one of Chris' drinking buddies at St. John's? Abd unlike Chris did he stay on the sauce?


Note - I am glad Mullin overcame those issues in his life

xray

Was your dad a big fan of St. John's? Mullin was really "big" coming out, and he might be swayed by that.

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Derek

Mullin was actually a good friend of my cousin. She hasn't seen him since about 1991. My dad was a St. John's fan, so that may be part of it. I thought Chris Mullin at first, but now that I think about it, Ewing was the right choice.