In a season where the Knicks have done everything they could to make us forget the glory days, the past 48 hours brought back an overwhelming reminder.

Patrick Ewing, the greatest player to wear the Knickerbocker uniform, will be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

In a rare touch of class from Madison Square Garden and embattled owner James Dolan, Ewing was treated to a video tribute in the Garden on Sunday when the Orlando Magic visited the Knicks. Ewing works as an assistant coach for the Magic, but got a standing ovation from appreciative New Yorkers who knew that he was likely to be honored a day later.

Joining Ewing in the Hall will be his longtime coach, Pat Riley. Though he’s now persona non grata around MSG because of the way he weaseled out at the end, Knicks fans shouldn’t forget the identity he forged around the Ewing-based Knicks team.

With ironclad defense and a team-first mantra, those teams were far more than the sum of their parts. Their legacy isn’t that they failed to win a championship, but that through supreme effort they nearly reached the promised land despite having only one All-Star talent.

Ewing, of course, was that talent, and his career will be fondly remembered in spite of the lack of a ring to coronate his success. It’s easy to forget that a quarter-century ago the Knicks were in a position similar to where they are now, until a fortuitous spin of the wheel in the first-ever draft lottery (no pingpong balls back then, folks) landed the ‘Bockers the first pick in the draft and the right to select Ewing.

With any great player who never won the ultimate prize, it’s always easier to remember the failures than the triumphs. Knicks’ fans memories of Ewing undoubtedly include the missed Game 7 layup at the buzzer in 1995 against Indiana (use the backboard!), or his being outplayed by Hakeem Olajuwon, who was also selected for the Hall of Fame yesterday, in his one trip to the Finals (he was injured in 1999), or the inability to beat Jordan’s Bulls.

What we should remember, however, are the triumphs — most notably the follow-up dunk in Game 7 against Indiana in 1994 that allowed the Knicks to make their first trip to the Finals in two decades. Or the inspired effort that knocked a dominant Chicago team so far onto its heels that the Bulls needed seven games to outlast the plucky New Yorkers in the second round in 1992.

That was Riley’s first season at the helm, and it was when the Ewing-era Knicks really became a force in the NBA. Ewing was 29 and had already been to five All-Star Games and made All-NBA four times, including a first-team selection in 1989–90. Yet the Knicks had been largely a one-man team, floundering under the likes of Stu Jackson, Rick Pitino and Bob Hill.

All that changed under Riley, who adopted a physical defensive approach and had the perfect pupil for his methods in Ewing. In his four seasons, the Knicks were second, first, first, and first in Defensive Efficiency, my rating of a team’s points allowed per 100 opponent possessions.

It was more than Ewing, obviously — Charles Oakley was a beast of a power forward, John Starks a dedicated wing defender, and subs like Anthony Mason and Greg Anthony kept the intensity through the roof. But the 7-footer was the linchpin, snuffing out any drives at the rim with his shot-blocking ability and controlling the defensive glass.

So good were the Knicks that their 1992–93 and 1993–94 teams were two of the three best defensive teams of all time, according to my numbers. Relative to the league, they gave up 8.2 and 7.8 points per 100 possessions less than that season’s average, respectively.

The only team to do better was the 2003–04 San Antonio Spurs, who were 8.5 points better. (Though I should point out that this year’s Celtics have a chance to push one or both of those Knicks teams one spot further down the list; at the moment they’d rank between the 1992–93 and 1993–94 teams).

And that is how, despite modest offensive talent, the 1992–93 team somehow finished with a better record than Jordan’s Bulls and had homecourt advantage for the conference finals. They might have even won the thing had Charles Smith converted any of the four layup attempts he had at the end of Game 5. Similarly, that’s how the Knicks finished 1993–94 atop the East and took Houston to seven games in one of the most excruciating Finals series in memory. No, the Knicks weren’t pretty, and neither was Ewing. His staple was the most boring play in hoops, the midrange jumper, and although he was an outstanding jump shooter for his size, he lacked textbook form. Meanwhile, his post moves tended to involve ponderous strides (and let’s be honest, often more strides than the rules allowed) toward the rim before an unexpectedly soft finish.

But both Ewing and the Knicks were darn effective. Ewing made 11 All-Star teams and seven All-NBA teams, and while he was in town the Knicks had seven 50-win seasons, four division titles and two conference championships. In the 12 seasons from 1988-89 to 1999–2000, New York made the second round of the playoffs 11 times.

That last stat is perhaps the most impressive because it speaks to Ewing’s best trait: consistency. No, he wasn’t as awesomely talented as Olajuwon or Robinson, and that’s ultimately why he ended up ringless. But he got everything he could from his skills, and both he and the Knicks ended up achieving far more than most would have expected.

The contrast with today’s sadsack Knicks couldn’t be more obvious. The old Knicks never gave an inch, while the current batch mails in two games a week. But with the Isiah Thomas era on the wane and a new optimism creeping into MSG, Ewing’s selection is an important reminder of what the Knicks once stood for, and what they can be again.

The Knicks may never have another Ewing, but instilling the pride and effort that the Ewing-era Knicks symbolized would go a long way toward restoring this franchise to its former glory.

jhollinger@nysun.com