Ewing never had it on sidelines

OTHER than loyalty, I’ll never figure how Georgetown figured Patrick Ewing would make a good head coach. His sense of the game as a Knick seemed extremely limited, as he eschewed creativity in favor of routine.

With Ewing as the Knicks’ center, any brief notion of running a fast break or even an upbeat offense was given the ixnay. Ewing’s defensive rebounds were almost invariably followed by handing the ball to the point guard, who slowly dribbled down court while Ewing set up near the basket, always calling for the ball.

As an art genre, he was an adherent to the Minimalist Movement. He was never schooled to be a total basketball college coach — and it showed.

➤ Hey, didn’t recognize the Canadiens on Thursday on MSG versus the Rangers. The Habs were wearing red, white and deep blue uniforms instead of their sacré powder blue ensembles.

➤ It seems that wherever Michael Irvin goes and whichever network he works for, he’s soon left to explain that there’s no fire attached to his trail of smoke.

➤ More neat stuff in Bill Sullivan’s second book about the early Mets, “Long Before the Miracle,” available via Amazon.

Galen Cisco, for example, 1962-65: “The first game I pitched for the Mets I threw 162 pitches. One hundred, sixty-two! And Casey Stengel never even asked if I was tired.”

Then there was 1964-65 infielder Bobby Klaus, who played college ball for Illinois where a teammate was pitcher Ray Nitschke, the fabled Packers middle linebacker who later was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Sullivan last month called Ron Hunt, who wrote the foreword to this book and was the first Mets-raised All-Star, to wish him a happy 82nd birthday.

➤ Wouldn’t it be smarter and certainly safer for big ticket players if MLB, in its current state, just skipped spring training and started the season at a given date rather than risk all these preseason injuries?

I was raised to think of spring training as a time to get into shape rather than hope to return by mid-June.