Shaquille O’Neal is among the most dominant big men to ever play professional basketball, but what you might not realize is that young Shaq idolized none other than Patrick Ewing, even wearing number 33 in high school and college because of the legendary Knicks’ center.
The Knicks, of course, are in the middle of a fight for playoff seeding with just a few games to go in the regular season. Thus, there are obviously issues of more imminent importance than how Shaq feels about Ewing, such as when the Knicks will clinch a spot in the top six in the Eastern Conference (their magic number is one), or whether Tom Thibodeau will change his stripes and bench his starting point guard (probably not, though he has significantly lowered Elfrid Payton’s minutes of late).