Patrick Ewing has racked up a number of awards throughout his basketball career. However, the Basketball Hall of Famer recently opened up about how a few of his awards were taken from him. Ewing was on The Dan Patrick Show this week and revealed that two of his Olympic gold medals and his NCAA Championship ring were stolen from his home. The good news is Ewing his getting two new gold medals soon.
“My house got broken into in New York, and at one point they stole my medals,” Ewing said on the show, as transcribed by ESPN. “So I called [former USA Basketball chairman] Jerry Colangelo, and he was great to be able to get me two replacement medals.” Ewing went on to say that Colangelo didn’t hesitate to help him. As for the NCAA Championship ring, Ewing was able to get the ring back after someone attempted to sell it. “They did take my college championship ring, but someone tried to sell it on eBay and I was able to get that back,” he said.
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Ewing won the gold medals at the 1984 and 1992 Olympics. The 1984 Olympic games featured some of the top college basketball players in the country including Michael Jordan, Chris Mullin and Sam Perkins. Ewing and Jordan would team up again in the 1992 Olympics as they were part of the famous Dream Team. Ewing won his NCAA Championship ring while attending Georgetown in 1984. Along with winning the title, Ewing was named Most Outstanding Player in the 1984 Final Four and was named National College Player of the Year in 1985.
In that same year, Ewing was drafted No. 1 overall by the New York Knicks. He won Rookie of the Year in 1986 and went on to become one of the best centers in NBA history. He was named to the All-Star team 11 times and is a member of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. The one thing Ewing didn’t accomplish in the NBA winning a championship. He was able to lead the Knicks to the NBA finals twice in his career, but the team lost to the Houston Rockets in 1994 and San Antonio Spurs in 1999. Ewing joined the Seattle Supersonics in 2000 and played one season there before joining the Orlando Magic in 2001. He is currently the head coach at Georgetown.
