Ewing is regarded as one of the greatest centers of all time, playing a dominant role in the New York Knicks' 1990s success.

[1] Highly recruited out of Cambridge, Massachusetts,[2] Ewing played center for the Georgetown Hoyas for four years—in three of which the team reached the NCAA championship game.

[3] He had a seventeen-year NBA career, predominantly playing for the New York Knicks, where he was an eleven-time all-star and named to seven All-NBA teams.

[5][6] He is a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts (in 2008 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the 1992 Olympic team).

[9] Ewing learned to play basketball at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School with the help of John Fountain and his coach Mike Jarvis.

With only a few years of playing experience, Ewing developed into one of the best high school players in the country, and among the most intimidating forces ever seen at the level given his size and athleticism.

As a senior in high school, Ewing signed a letter of intent to play for coach John Thompson at Georgetown University.

In one of the most star-studded championship games in NCAA history, Ewing was called for goaltending five times in the first half (later revealed to be intentional at the behest of coach John Thompson), setting the tone for the Hoyas and making his presence felt.

The Hoyas led late in the game, but a shot by future NBA superstar Michael Jordan gave North Carolina the lead.

[16] In the final, the Hoyas faced the University of Houston, led by future Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon.

In the National Semifinal game, Georgetown faced their Big East rivals, St. John's and Chris Mullin, the fourth meeting between the schools that year.

The Hoyas easily defeated the Redmen 77–59, setting up a matchup with another Big East rival in unranked Villanova for the title.

Also, he developed a habit of wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt underneath his jersey, which started a fashion trend among young athletes that lasts to this day.

This practice tended to encourage teams to purposely lose games in order to improve their draft position and potentially get into the coin toss.

In the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Knicks played the defending NBA champion Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan.

The team trailed 3–2 in the series, and Ewing was limited physically by a bad ankle sprain,[23] but he helped the Knicks beat the Bulls 100–86 by scoring 27 points.

NBC announcer Marv Albert called it a "Willis Reed-type performance", but the Knicks were ultimately eliminated in Game 7 in a blowout, 110–81.

Ewing made the most of his playoff run by setting a record for most blocked shots in a Finals series with 30 (later broken by Tim Duncan in 2003 with 32).

He also set an NBA Finals record for most blocked shots in a single game, with 8 (surpassed by Dwight Howard in 2009).

The following year, a potential game-tying finger roll by Ewing rimmed out in the dwindling seconds of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, resulting in a loss to the Indiana Pacers.

On December 20, 1997, in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center, Ewing was fouled by Andrew Lang while attempting a dunk.

The result was a severely damaged wrist, with Ewing suffering a displaced fracture, a complete dislocation of the lunate bone, and torn ligaments.

[34] Ewing won Olympic gold medals as a member of the 1984 and 1992 United States men's basketball teams.

From 2002 to 2003, Ewing served as an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards under the ownership of his longtime rival Michael Jordan.

On July 3, 2007, Ewing was one of four assistants hired to serve under first-year Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy[40] for the 2007–08 season.

[46] In the championship game, Georgetown defeated the second-seeded Creighton Bluejays 73–48, and qualified for the 2021 NCAA Division I basketball tournament.

Conference tournament champion Ewing interned in the office of Senator Bob Dole during multiple summers in college.

[49][50] Ewing was in the 1996 movie Space Jam as himself, one of five NBA players whose talent was stolen (along with Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Larry Johnson, and Muggsy Bogues).

[52] In 2014, Ewing and sports agent David Falk announced a $3.3 million donation to the John R. Thompson, Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center under construction at Georgetown University.

Ewing told the court he received oral sex from dancers at the club in 1996 and 1997, but did not pay any money for the encounters and did not feel that he was involved in an act of prostitution.