Ewing Enters Basketball Immortality, Reinforces Boston’s Glowing Race Relations

↵
↵Patrick Ewing: Invented the lottery, forced Stern to rig said lottery on the Knicks behalf, never won a title, got called unspeakable things by fans, which is the prime example for the anti-star philosophy known as “the Ewing Theory.” But today, he enters the Hall of Fame. He is a star.↵
↵
↵So naturally, in The Boston Globe, Ewing recounts his childhood in Boston, how it shaped him for better and worse -- and yes, reinforces that city’s sparkling reputation for race relations:↵↵⇥“Cambridge was a melting pot,” Ewing said. “There were Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Barbadians, Haitians, Greeks, Italians, Portuguese. We had a great community, a great tradition at Rindge Tech. But it was definitely hostile every time we went outside the city.”↵⇥
↵⇥
↵⇥“It was the time of forced busing,” [former coach Mike] Jarvis said. “We dealt with a lot of racism outside of Cambridge, which was a pretty homogeneous, integrated, cosmopolitan community. We had to change a lot of flat tires, replace broken windows, take guys to hospitals, there was glass in kids’ eyes, there were a lot of racial comments and gestures.”↵↵Good thing that, as Jarvis put it, “We dealt with it because we had to, but it was also a means of motivation.” Look, not to play into old stereotypes about a city. And I know this was several decades ago. But when Boston doesn’t have the best track record here: City legend Bill Russell, who lives in Seattle, called it “a flea market for racism,” and the perceptive (if slightly paranoid) Barry Bonds deeming the city “too racist for me”, this isn’t exactly the kind of PR Boston needs as one of its native sons enters the Hall.↵
↵
↵But hey, the Celtics won a title this summer with only one white player, so it’s all good, right? Unless you remember that Russell also once uttered, “I didn’t play for Boston, I played for the Celtics.”↵