YouTube Gold: Ralph Sampson And Patrick Ewing Butt Heads In College

There were giants in those days

A while back, Jay Bilas said that players today were better than players of his era and in general, he’s right: the combination of improved equipment (primarily shoes), the ways science and technology have improved everything from analytics to training to nutrition and the natural evolution of the game means that players today are more skilled and prepared than ever. Take the concept of positionless basketball. We had hints of it in the ‘80’s, notably with the 1989 Illinois Final Four team, but that wasn’t around for most of the 1980’s.

However, players stayed in college longer then and there have always been good stretches of talent across certain periods. Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were just a few years apart and Nate Thurmond was not far behind them. Oscar Robertson and Jerry West were part of the same era.

The 1980’s, as Bilas well knows, were loaded with Hall of Fame big men. He personally played against David Robinson and Brad Daugherty. Hakeem Olajuwon rocked rims at Houston in the same era. Shaquille O’ Neal was just a few years behind them.

And also huge factors in the 1980’s: Patrick Ewing and Ralph Sampson.

In this video, they played against each other and as you will quickly realize, there is nothing in the game today like what we see here. Sampson was 7-4, lean and highly athletic while Ewing was four inches shorter at 7-0, but stronger and possibly more athletic (the Ewing we saw in the NBA was still effective but lost some of his immense ability to run the court that stunned opponents in college).

You can see that while Ewing’s power and intensity bothered Sampson, Ralph’s length and quickness also bothered Ewing.

There is not now, and likely will never be again, a pair of big men in college at the same time who are scheduled to play each other in the regular season again like this. It was wondrous.