The Master Of The Key

What is it about Ewing that compels the Committee to protect him so? His youth? He's 22 now, "more proud of being a man than this great basketball player we talk about," says Georgetown coach John Thompson , largest and most influential member of the Ewing Committee. Is it Ewing 's difficulty in expressing himself? Is he not a senior in fine arts at one of the nation's most esteemed universities? Mary Fenlon , the Hoya basketball team's academic coordinator, won't comment on Ewing 's academic record, but a faculty member in Georgetown 's College of Arts and Sciences says, "He's definitely on time for graduation. No problems that we see. Same requirements as everyone in the field."

So is it merely habit? Is it just easier this way for Ewing—allowing the Committee to handle his celebrity for him? He seems to feel that he has better things to do than talk about himself. The Committee members seem to feel good testifying about what they've done for Ewing .

Deborah Ross was the first Committee member to speak. For five years before Ewing went to Georgetown she had been his tutor, working to help him bridge the language gap between proper Bostonese and Ewing 's native Jamaican patois. "I saw another side of Patrick," she told the student audience. "His achievements, academic and athletic, are not unrelated. Patrick agreed to participate in the learning process. You can't teach somebody who doesn't want to learn. Patrick had the willingness to accept an enormous challenge...and to suffer losses...but never to refuse to work.... I never gave Patrick a graduation present, until now."

Steve Jenkins pulled at the end of his bushy red beard as he talked. "I had Patrick first, in 1975, in the old Rindge Technical High building," he said. "He was 6'1". I had him playing point guard. He went to Upward Bound at Wellesley College instead of summer basketball camps. Patrick Ewing stands as an example for all kids in Cambridge ."

Mike Jarvis stood up. With Ewing as his center, Jarvis had coached Rindge and Latin to those three Massachusetts titles. Jarvis is a proponent of the Celtics ' team concept, and his hero is Bill Russell , whose rebounds Jarvis recalls counting as a youngster—"counting them until I went to sleep," he says. But Jarvis purposely had never mentioned Russell to Ewing until Ewing , as a 10th grader, had asked, "Who is this Bill Russell ?" Ewing had been in America only four years at the time, and people were saying to him, "You play like Russell ." Ewing had to ask to be sure this wasn't an insult. At other times people had called him names he hadn't understood. He hadn't known what "Hey, Peking man" meant until he asked. To this day, Ewing hasn't seen so much as a film clip of Russell playing.

Jarvis spoke eloquently. "Patrick took something God gave all of us—potential—and first he discovered it, then he developed it. He learned—was taught—to listen. Once you told him the answer, he never forgot. Not a day of practice did he miss. Not one day. Never did he miss a class, not even a study hall. Never did he average more than 21 points a game. He could've had that in a quarter. Nobody received more criticism, from the day he started to play. No matter how foolish he looked, how people laughed, he practiced. And God gave Patrick Ewing something else—one of the greatest mothers in the world. This is their day, the Ewings' day, Dorothy and Patrick Ewing ."

At this, tears welled up in Patrick's eyes, and he glanced over his right shoulder at Lastina and asked her, "Are you all right?" She nodded. While swiveling his head back, he noticed a television minicamera that was aimed at him. He spun toward Ford, looking churlish, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the camera. "Can you tell them to take that camera off me?" he asked. "Oh," said Ford, smiling, "they won't bother you." Ewing stared straight ahead.

Soon it was his turn to speak. "Well," he began. He was moved and more than a little nervous. Again he let out a laughlike burst of breath. "I really don't know what to say. This brings back memories. I appreciate it, and it feels great to be home. I'm honored to have this day, except that when everybody was talking they made me feel like a saint. John Thompson has said, 'There are no saints in the pivot.' I'd like to thank you for your time and your effort."

Patrick Aloysius Ewing was then pronounced a charter member of the CRLHS Sports Hall of Fame. His family sat impassively. Patrick had, after all, merely done what was expected of him. But the students in the audience stood and cheered. They had a better perspective on expectations. When Ewing stood where they stood now, he couldn't have expected to become a role model. They cheered like mad.

But something in Ewing 's mood had been broken—or perhaps he wanted more time with Williams. He'd been scheduled to give a press conference, but it was hastily canceled. A television news crew wanted an interview, but Ewing refused. Questions were referred to one member or another of the Committee. Ewing signed autographs on his way out and posed for pictures in the teachers' cafeteria. Outside, leaning against a tree only slightly taller than he, he asked for, and received, permission to kiss Williams on the cheek. He didn't refer this matter to the Committee. His mother should have seen this day. "She did see it, I'm convinced," said Ford. "Look—the sun shines so brightly."