Patrick Ewing has accepted the role of assistant coach with the Washington Wizards for the upcoming 2026-2027 season, WUSA9 confirmed. Ewing, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, gained notoriety playing first for the Georgetown Hoyas and then for the New York Knicks.
Ewing, who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, signed a letter of intent his senior year of high school to play for coach John Thompson Jr., who coached at Georgetown for 27 seasons and led the team to 14 straight NCAA tournaments. They made a formidable pair, at 7’0” and 6’10” respectively, and drove Hoya basketball to new heights. Ewing played his entire collegiate career with the Hoyas, from 1981-1985, when the team reached the NCAA championship game three times.
In Ewing’s first year at Georgetown, he led the team to just the second BIG EAST championship title in school history, securing the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament but falling to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the championship game. They once again earned the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament his junior year, this time going on to win the final against the University of Houston in 1984. Ewing earned the title of the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and brought home to Georgetown its first and only NCAA Championship. While they did not win it all again in 1985, they took home another BIG EAST tournament title. Ewing was the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year four times in a row.
The Knicks drafted Ewing following his senior season in the first round with the first overall pick. He was voted NBA Rookie of the Year despite injuries and went on to play 15 seasons with the Knicks. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, and won gold medals with the U.S. men’s national basketball team in 1984 and 1992, the latter of which is known as the “Dream Team” for its star-studded lineup (including Jerry West, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson). Only one title continued to elude Ewing: despite appearing in the Finals twice, Ewing did not win a title with the Knicks—until now. As a “basketball ambassador” for the Knicks in their front office, he shared in their recent NBA Championship victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
Ewing attempted a return to Washington, D.C. twice before. He was an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards from 2002-2003, when Michael Jordan owned the franchise. After various NBA coaching stints, he came home to the hilltop in 2017 as head coach of the Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team. His tenure lasted six seasons, until a first-round loss in the 2023 BIG EAST tournament. However, under his guidance, the team reached the 2019 National Invitation Tournament, their first playoff tournament appearance since 2015. In 2021, Ewing and the Hoyas beat Creighton to win the BIG EAST conference championship and won a spot in the NCAA tournament. After Georgetown fired Ewing, they replaced him with Ed Cooley, the current Georgetown head coach.
Now, Ewing is coming home to Washington to coach the NBA team that shares Capital One Arena with his Georgetown Hoyas. The Wizards used their first overall pick in this year’s NBA draft to select AJ Dybantsa from BYU. Ewing and Dybantsa, who was born five years after Ewing retired from the NBA, now have the same mission: transform the Wizards into a team that can compete for an NBA championship.
