Patrick Ewing's No. 33 will hang from the Madison Square Garden rafters for time immemorial. His hoop epitaph should read: "There went a guy who knew what he was, didn't want to be anything else, and the likes of which we may never see again."

	The hard-working Patrick Ewing left everything on the court, including his share of sweat.

Think about it. When are we ever going to see someone like Patrick Ewing again? A dominant high-school center -- Center with a capital C -- who actually wants to play inside, not take threes, not work on a crossover dribble, who goes to college for four years and who learned his basketball in the United States?

Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like for Ewing if he were coming out of Cambridge Rindge and Latin High this year? For one thing, there would be no purpose for John Thompson or anyone else to even bother stopping by for a chat. It'd be NBA or bust.

"It'd be just like it is now for LeBron, maybe even bigger,'' said Celtics' personnel chief Leo Papile, who coached Ewing on his AAU teams when Ewing was passing through high school. "You would have a national schedule. You would see all of his games being played at the FleetCenter. He'd be one of the top picks in the draft, if not the No. 1 pick overall. You'd have all the agents and the shoe people hiding in the weeds.

"It may be hard for people to remember, but Patrick was one of a generation. You had Wilt coming out of Overbrook (High) in the 1950s.You had Alcindor coming out of Power Memorial in the 60s. And you had Patrick coming out of Rindge and Latin in the early 80s. That's pretty good company for him to be in.''

The Great Center Shortage in the United States is not a news bulletin. Why we are not producing Patrick Ewings anymore is a mystery, given that the Balkans seem to be churning these guys out with Ethel Kennedy-like regularity and efficiency. If you scan the 29 NBA rosters, you'll have a hard time finding a legitimate center under the age of 30 who had his basketball mentoring in the United States (Shaquille O'Neal is 30, and turns 31 next week).

In fact, you won't find one, unless you think Erick Dampier qualifies. Chris Mihm? Please. Brad Miller? He's serviceable, but the mere fact he made the Eastern Conference All-Star team indicates how shallow the pivot pool really is. Michael Doleac? Sorry. Most teams these days use power forwards in the middle, like Tony Battie, Antonio Davis, Marcus Camby or Dale Davis. The best of the under-30 center set may either be Miller or Greg Ostertag. Scary, huh? (And Ostertag turns 30 next week anyway.)

	“	It may be hard for people to remember, but Patrick was one of a generation. You had Wilt coming out of Overbrook (High) in the 1950s.You had Alcindor coming out of Power Memorial in the 60s. And you had Patrick coming out of Rindge and Latin in the early 80s. That's pretty good company for him to be in. ”
		— Celtics personnel chief Leo Papile

Ewing may not have been born in the USA, but he learned his basketball under Mike Jarvis at Rindge and Latin along with Papile in the summer leagues. Those two put him in the post and, along with the later teachings of Thompson, developed Ewing into a bona fide center who eventually will be honored in Springfield.

"Patrick was a manchild, but he always knew he was a center and he always wanted to be a center,'' Papile said.

Added Celtics coach Jim O'Brien, who had Ewing for two years in New York, "he was coached to be a center and to be an intimidating one at Georgetown. He had the ideal coach in John Thompson in that John coached his team stressing defense, intimidation, not backing down, out-toughing the other guy. So he came into the NBA with that mindset. He would not have had that, or he would have needed longer to get that, had he simply gone to the NBA.''

It was highly unusual, but not unprecedented, for high school kids to go directly to the pros in those days. Darryl Dawkins had done so out of Maynard Evans High School in Orlando in 1975. Moses Malone had done so out of Petersburg High in Virginia in 1974. Bill Willoughby had come out of Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, N.J., in 1975 to play for six NBA teams.

But in 1981, Ewing was focused on college, not the Mavericks, Pistons or Nets, who had the first three picks in the draft. (The draftees were Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas and Buck Williams.) His mother, Dorothy, wanted him to be the first member of the family to go to college and to graduate from college and that was Ewing's path and goal. He did both.

"Thank God it was a different era,'' recalled Jarvis. "It just wasn't a time where people came out early. And if Patrick had ever even thought about it, his mother would have given him such a beating that he would have forgotten about it in a day. The reality is, he was ready to go to college and be a dominant player. He wasn't ready for the NBA.''

But he would be today because he'd have no option and because the NBA of today is so watered down that high schoolers not only get drafted, they also play and contribute. There would be a three-year, guaranteed, $12-million plus salary awaiting him with the prospect of millions more down the road. (The word "guaranteed" is the key there; something often overlooked by David Stern when he talks about young golfers or tennis players. They have to earn their money. Stromile Swift gets his whether he plays or sits.) There'd be an enormous shoe deal on the table. He'd be joining a league with fewer and fewer legitimate centers, so he'd be an ultra-hot commodity.

That situation currently applies to Darko Milicic. He is from Yugoslavia and he is 17 and he will be, at worse, the No. 2 pick in the 2003 NBA draft. Milicic is purported to be the real deal. If that's the case, it's one more example of why Patrick Ewing was one of a kind, a vanishing basketball species. He's being celebrated for what he did. He should be equally honored for knowing exactly who he was and never, ever wavering.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.