COMMENTARY : Memo to Starks, Oakley: Ewing Needs Help

At the end Tuesday, having watched Michael Jordan build a night that will be remembered as well as anything he has ever done, after one of the most remarkable performances in basketball history, Patrick Ewing still tried to stand in there with Jordan. Ewing just needed some help. The rest of the Knicks could not give it to him. It happens that way more and more.

Tuesday was just another night at Madison Square Garden when John Starks and Charles Oakley, who are supposed to help Ewing the most, seemed to be on some sort of paid leave. They were the second- and third-best Knicks last season, when New York nearly won a championship. This time they are not even close.

Jordan scored only six of his 55 points in the fourth quarter against the Knicks. All of a sudden, it was Ewing who couldn’t miss. Even when Jordan had made it to 50 points, it seemed the Knicks could still take the game. Ewing scored 25 points in the second half, including 14 in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t enough.

Ewing has played this kind of game before against Jordan and lost. He has played it all the way back to college. Jordan has always had better players around him, even on nights when he doesn’t need them very much.

At North Carolina, Jordan had James Worthy and Sam Perkins. Now he has Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc, B.J. Armstrong. The two best Knicks after Ewing are Starks and Oakley. Both were all-stars last season. This season, they have been the opposite. Even when sound, both have played like journeymen, and nothing more.

The Knicks paid them a ton of money last fall, and ever since, the two of them have played as if they want to end up on the list of players who will be made available to expansion teams.

If they don’t pick up their games, and soon, the Knicks won’t make it past the first round of the playoffs. Starks in particular has had an awful season. Oakley hasn’t been much better. Of course he had to be given time after coming back from surgery on his toe. But that grace period is over now, and it’s time for him to start doing the job.

Oakley was outrebounded by Pippen and Kukoc Tuesday night. Starks was four for 10 against the Bulls, scored 14 points, and fell down on the last play, when the Knicks had a chance to tie.

Everybody always talks about attitude with the Knicks when things go wrong. The real problem is that the team has had only one star player this season. Patrick Ewing has carried the team for three months. He can’t carry them for three more. If Oakley and Starks want to help out, they should jump in any time.