Who Was Michael Sweetney? The Georgetown-to-Knicks Story

Michael Sweetney was the Georgetown forward selected ninth overall by the New York Knicks in the 2003 NBA Draft. That shorthand is accurate, but incomplete: Georgetown’s official record shows a decorated college career, while a Chicago Bulls announcement documents that his first two NBA seasons were in New York before a 2005 sign-and-trade.

Was Michael Sweetney mainly a Georgetown standout or a Knicks player?

Both descriptions are accurate, but they answer different questions.

Georgetown Athletics’ 2024 Hall of Fame announcement identifies Michael D. “Mike” Sweetney as one of the school’s inductees. The announcement credits him with helping Georgetown reach the 2001 NCAA Sweet 16 and records a 2002 season in which he averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds. It also lists him as a first-team All-BIG EAST selection, an AP All-American, a finalist for Naismith College Player of the Year, and fifth all-time at Georgetown in rebounds.

That context changes how the name should be understood. “Former Knicks player” identifies one part of his professional history; it does not capture the college résumé that established him as a notable prospect.

Why was he a first-round Knicks pick?

The NBA.com player profile lists Sweetney as a forward who attended Georgetown and stood 6-foot-8 and 270 pounds. Most importantly, it records his selection by New York in the first round, ninth overall, of the 2003 NBA Draft.

For identification purposes, those details connect the college and professional records: the Georgetown player celebrated by the university is the same forward who entered the NBA near the top of the draft. The draft position is a clearer answer than treating “former Knicks player” as a complete biography.

What happened to his Knicks tenure?

The Chicago Bulls’ official October 4, 2005 announcement records a sign-and-trade in which New York received Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis. Chicago received Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, and draft considerations.

The same announcement says Sweetney had played his first two NBA seasons with New York. It lists 119 games with the Knicks, along with averages of 7.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. For the 2004–05 season, it records 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game.

Those figures provide a useful boundary for the story. They establish a real Knicks tenure and a documented move to Chicago without turning the trade into an unsupported explanation of his career or personal life.

The short answer

Yes, Michael Sweetney was a former Knicks player. The fuller answer is that he was also a Georgetown Hall of Fame inductee whose college résumé led to a ninth-overall Knicks selection, followed by a two-season New York chapter that ended with the 2005 move to Chicago. His college legacy and NBA record are separate stages of the same career, not competing versions of it.