Patrick Ewing Interviews For Pistons’ Coaching Job

The Detroit Pistons continued their search for a new head coach today, interviewing Knicks legend and current Orlando Magic assistant Patrick Ewing. Ewing has repeatedly expressed desire and interest to take the next step in the coaching ranks, and hopes the vacant position in Detroit will provide him his first chance. From NBA.com:

“Ewing, 49, has long desired to be a head coach, and has decried what he viewed as pigeonholing him as a ‘big man’ assistant, a role he has undertaken while an assistant coach in Houston withYao Ming and in Orlando with Dwight Howard. Ewing has said that he does a lot more than just work with bigs and is ready to run a team. He badly wanted to get a shot with the Knicks, the team for whom he became a superstar after being taken first overall in the 1985 Draft. ‘It’s disappointing that I haven’t moved to the next step to getting a head coaching job, but all I can do is keep working hard and keep on preparing myself for whenever that opportunity arises,’ Ewing told the New York Daily News earlier this month. ‘A lot of people try to pigeonhole me into just a big man’s coach and I’m just not a big man’s coach. I’m a coach.’ He is the fifth known candidate to replace John Kuester, joining former Hawks coach Mike Woodson, former Nets and current Celtics assistant Lawrence Frank, former WNBA coach and current Timberwolves assistant Bill Laimbeer and current Bucks assistant coach Kelvin Sampson, a former college coach at Indiana and Oklahoma. Each has interviewed once with team president Joe Dumars. It is not known if second interviews will be conducted with the Pistons’ new majority owner, Tom Gores.”