Indianapolis ? The younger Darryl Strawberry and Patrick Ewing Jr. have dealt with the questions and comparisons all their lives.

Now, they are trying to outgrow them.

Pat Ewing Jr. dunks during the Nike All-American Camp in Indianapolis. Ewing is the son of former New York Knick Patrick Ewing.

Of the 200 participants attending this week’s Nike All-America Camp, Strawberry and Ewing Jr. easily have the most distinguishable names and the toughest jobs carving out their own identities.

“Sometimes you get those people who want to go after you because you’re Darryl Strawberry’s son,” the younger Strawberry said. “Sometimes it gets a little hard. But you can’t do anything about it. You’ve got to deal with it.”

For Strawberry, 16, and Ewing, 18, the struggle to crawl out of that long shadow is an everyday challenge, especially given some of the similarities.

Strawberry, like his father, is long and lanky at 6-foot-3, 172 pounds. He also plays baseball at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., but basketball is his favorite sport. He averaged 12 points and 7.0 rebounds last season.

Ewing, who prefers to be called Pat, is 6-8, weighs 213 pounds and his facial features are almost identical to those of his 7-foot father. Last season, he averaged 13.8 points and 8.5 rebounds for Marietta (Ga.), which went 28-0 and was ranked No. 13 in USA Today when the regular season ended. He also was named the defensive player of the year.

With a summer and a high school season still to prove themselves , Ewing has not yet narrowed his college choices, while Strawberry lists Maryland, Kansas, Pepperdine and California as his finalists.

When people watch the sons, it’s hard to forget the fathers.

“Some people do that,” Ewing said. “I think it happens with everyone who has a famous parent.”

What makes it tougher for these two, though, is that they’re not just carrying on a legacy; they also have the burden of living up to the name.

Patrick Ewing, who spent last season with the Orlando Magic, said his advice is not to worry.

“He’s always going to be Patrick Ewing,” said Ewing, the father. “That’s something he has to adjust to.”

Adjusting has been part of the sons’ lifestyles almost from the moment their fathers burst onto the scene in the 1980s as two of New York’s biggest names.

The New York Knicks made Ewing the first pick of the 1985 NBA draft and spent 15 years building a franchise around their All-Star center. Strawberry was an All-Star who led the New York Mets to the 1986 World Series title, and he later won two World Series rings with the New York Yankees.

Back then, the fathers rarely crossed paths and the sons didn’t meet until a basketball tournament last year in St. Louis, when Ewing’s father was about to testify at the Gold Club trial in Atlanta.

“At that time his dad had just been in the paper for something, I don’t really remember what, and the kids there were trying to rag me about it,” Ewing Jr. said. “He (Strawberry) came up to me and said ‘Don’t take it too seriously, it happens to me all the time.”‘

That’s because Strawberry, the father, has been in and out of drug treatment centers and courtrooms many times in recent years. He is now serving an 18-month term in a Florida prison for a parole violation after being convicted on drug and solicitation of prostitution charges in 1999.

But even in Indianapolis, there’s no escape for Strawberry’s son.

“On the playing field, you’ve got to go hard all the time,” he said of what he has learned. “Off the court, you don’t want to get caught up with drugs and women because that causes nothing but trouble.”

Still, Strawberry cannot avoid every confrontation.

Occasionally, he becomes the target for other kids who think they can prove they’re better than him and his dad.

“They don’t try to hurt me, but they know who I am and they know my game,” he said. “I guess they’re trying to make me look bad so they can say they did Daryl Strawberry’s son or whatever.”

Wherever they go, Darryl Strawberry and Pat Ewing Jr. know the battle for their own identity will continue.

“My dad tells me to stay positive and to do what I have to do,” Strawberry said. “He wants me to make a name for myself because he messed up.”