Ewing Theory By Bill Simmons

The Ewing Theory by Bill Simmons is a very interesting piece that I have thought about in the past. He talks about how sometimes a star that leaves a team does not hurt the team, sometimes it even helps them. If I were to look at a candidate of the Ewing theory today, it would be Russell Westbrook. Is he an incredible athlete? Yes. Does he make his teammates better? Absolutely not. We have seen how Westbrook plays, he’s all about his stats. His stat padding was crazy in the two years he was trying to average a triple-double. If you took Westbrook off OKC and replaced him with a guy like Goran Dragic, OKC may very well have the same record, if not better. The issue with OKC is that Westbrook, Paul George, and Melo all are ball-dominate players. There is a reason the Jazz whooped them in the playoffs. I absolutely agree that the Ewing Theory is a real thing, but it can only happen with some stars. The Mariners in 2001 was the craziest and most inexplicable example, but the others? It’s really not that surprising. Especially in basketball, you see a very ball dominant, sometimes selfish player leave and the team gets better. Why? Because they are passing, they are getting more open, and one guy isn’t taking all the shots. If you look at OKC vs Golden State. OKC has stars, but Westbrook is me me me. Golden State has multiple superstars. You would think this would become an issue when it comes to egos, but it’s not. The players on Golden State have bought into winning, nit stat padding. Even though I hate that team, watching them play basketball is beautiful. The ball movement and unselfishness is second to none. The Ewing Theory is real, but not for every star. As an example, the Cavs are going to be atrocious without Lebron.