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[QUOTE="Knicks411, post: 3360957, member: 767"]
Ewing really was so underrated.  I guess it kinda hurts that he was playing in the era of centers.  As great as I think he was, he doesn't compete with Hakeem.  He's probably not at the level of Robinson, and then you have Shaq coming up behind him.

But if you look at teams defensive rating relative to the era they were in (basically, defensive rating divided by league average rating) I'm pretty sure this is still true; the teams at the top of the list are basically 1) the Duncan Spurs and 2) the Ewing Knicks.  He anchored some of the best defenses ever (he had help, I guess that is the kind of misleading thing; he definitely didn't have a great supporting cast, but the guys he did have, were great defenders as opposed to scorers, so looking back, they look even worse) and he was a good offensive player.

Thought experiment.  When Ewing was in college, he was basically considered the next Russell, the #1 pick whenever he came out.  If he comes out after his junior year in 84 (which really, they won the title, no reason not to), who does first, him or Hakeem? And then the Blazers go with whoever wasn't first instead of Sam Bowie?  The 84 draft is already considered one of the best ever, imagine dropping Ewing into the mix.
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