Ewing and Olajuwon Head To The Hall

Growing up in Queens, NY, basketball was all about St. John's University basketball with Louie Carnesecca and his colorful sweaters at the helm and, of course, New York Knicks basketball. I got on the Knicks train as Bernard King was getting off of it, but man could King score with the best of them.

In any case, the next great era in Knicks basketball came when they won the first ever NBA Lottery and the right to draft Patrick Ewing, the Hoya Destroya, from Georgetown University with the first pick. Being a Redmen fan, I got to see the damage Ewing did against my favorite college team and was glad he was going to be on my favorite pro team.

As pathetic as it sounds, for a few seasons I actually kept track of Ewing's stats from each game in a marble notebook as I was following his progress. Obviously, this was before the huge internet boom for which we all rely on nowadays. Yup, I LOVED Ewing and hated Hakeem Olajuwon. Ha!

Okay, I didn't hate Olajuwon per se. Afterall, he was always my center in the three years I played fantasy basketball with a set of friends I've since lost touch with, but he did irk me. Ewing and Georgetown University... Olajuwon and the University of Houston. These two would forever be bonded from their college days playing for a championship (Ewing taking it in 1984), to their pro days, also playing for a championship. And guess who came up on top most of the time, especially in the pros... yeah, Olajuwon.

That might be why I don't like him so much.

However, I always had an appreciation for Olajuwon that was close to equalling my love for Ewing. So, it's only fitting that my most beloved center of all-time and the his "Bizarro" go into the Hall of Fame together. Congrats!

Oh yeah, some other people made it too. And they're AWESOME too, BABY!

Photo: Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images