Do you all know Billy Crystal? I’ve always thought he was a pretty good comedian. He was great on Saturday Night Live, with his crazy characters like Fernando of “You Look Marvelous” fame, and Willie the masochistic security guard. Plus, his incredible Sammy Davis Jr. impression is one of the best ever. Of course he’s had lots of funny movies like City Slickers (and II), and Analyze This (and That). Plus he was the voice of Mike Wazowski in the hilarious Disney/Pixar movie Monsters Inc. But, of all of the very funny and wild things about Billy Crystal, the funniest and craziest thing of all is that he is a Los Angeles Clippers fan. That’s not a joke.

As Patrick Ewing enters the Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, I remember all of my frustrating and depressing years as a die-hard Knicks fan. I know that New Yorkers suffered more than I did in terms of pre-and-post Ewing, but during those seasons when Pat called the Garden home, I was just as passionate as anyone. Fortunately now I am free of the curse of being a Knicks fan. And that freedom got me to thinking, would I rather be a Knicks fan or a Clippers fan like Billy Crystal? I think it would be better to be a Clippers fan.

Think about it. The Clippers are pretty much a disaster, since the dawn of their entrance into the NBA, but once Bob McAdoo left they haven’t had a lot of talent. That’s the sign of a bad front office, but is it worse to never have good players or to squander one of the greatest ever? Let’s get back to the Knicks.

Patrick Ewing’s career was doomed from the start. I’m not going to single out any individuals here - every person involved was part of the Knickerbockers’ organization - so I’ll just refer to everybody as “The Knicks” since everyone involved is to blame. Very early in his career the Knicks wanted to move Ewing to the power forward so that Bill Cartwright could remain the team’s center. Wait, what? Move Ewing to the 4 spot? At that point the move was obvious … “Coach, you’re fired.” But that didn’t happen right away and some time was wasted.

Eventually the team realized that they needed to start building around Patrick Ewing, duh! So by the early 1990’s the Knicks had put some good pieces into place - Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, and John Starks. In 1994 the Knicks made it to the NBA Finals. Ewing did all he could but needed a little more help from his teammates. In that series, as is often the case, it proved to be the supporting cast that made the difference. Sam Cassell was a hero for Houston in Game 3, and John Starks went 2 for 19 from the field in Game 7. The Knicks still didn’t have the right pieces around Patrick, and that kept him from getting his ring.

By the time the Knicks actually seemed to get the picture, it was too late. They brought in a bunch of key supporting players to compliment an aging Ewing when Allan Houston, and Larry Johnson came to NYC. The NBA actually had a hand in keeping Ewing without a championship with their incredible suspensions of half of the Knicks team in the playoffs against the Miami Heat in 1997. So the Knicks were a collection of quickly aging superstars and quickly fading up and coming stars (they added Latrell Sprewell) when they made it back to the NBA Finals in 1999. They would’ve had a pretty tough time with the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs in the Finals even if the roster had been full strength, but with Ewing sidelined with the Achilles injury, there was no hope.

Ewing was traded to Seattle, and the Knicks have fallen into the dregs of the Eastern Conference. Many New Yorkers still blame Ewing for the team’s failure to win an NBA Championship, which is totally absurd. Do Red Sox fans blame Ted Williams for losing the 1946 World Series? Look at the NBA teams that won NBA titles during Ewing’s career with the Knicks: the Celtics, the Lakers, the Pistons, the Bulls, the Rockets, and the Spurs. All of those teams had critical contributions from players besides their best player - Kevin McHale, James Worthy, Joe Dumars, Sam Cassell, Sean Elliott. The Knicks never did.

Now, because of their inability to make the right decisions and build a champion in spite of having one of the best centers ever, the Knicks have a lifetime of “What if” to haunt their dreams. The Knicks are a disaster because they had the perfect player to lead them to a Championship and they couldn’t do it. They have been in a tailspin ever since. The numerous big time players they have brought in to help turn things around have all been flops, just re-enforcing the franchise’s inadequacies. The individuals have changed, but the organization is the same. It’s the same story with the Clippers. No matter who does what in LA, the Clippers still can’t find any answers to their problems. But when you never had a first-ballot Hall of Famer leading your team, it’s easy to understand why. The Clippers can look at the Knicks and think to themselves, “We might not have won a Championship while Patrick Ewing was in the league, but that’s because he never played for us.” That is actually a pretty reassuring thought for Clippers fans. Maybe that’s why Billy Crystal has such a good sense of humor.