Two notes on the tourney itself before we get to the winner: shout out to John Starks, the only Ewing opponent who didn’t get absolutely steamrolled in the voting. There’s something perfect about that — Starks heading into a seemingly impossible match-up and doing better than logic or numbers suggested he would. John’s career with the Knicks started when he, knowing he was going to get cut, tried to dunk over Ewing at the end of training camp and injured himself in the process. Seems an appropriate bookend for Starks to once again try and fail to top Ewing, and earn himself more love for so doing.
The Most-Loved Knick Ever* tournament winner: Patrick Ewing
