http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/sean_deveney/20030701.html

I sat with Keith Kreiter, the agent for 18-year-old Polish forward Maciej Lampe, two weeks ago at a Chicago eatery, discussing his client. I had heard about Lampe's skills from a handful of NBA personnel people, who added that the kid was a sure top 10 pick. He's 7-0, and by the time he is done growing he could be 7-2. He can shoot. He can handle the ball. He can play three positions.

All the scouting reports were good. But I asked Kreiter about the one hang-up that can come around with international players -- the contract in Europe, in Lampe's case, with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid. Won't be a problem, Kreiter said.

Indeed, it was not a problem. The international governing body for basketball, FIBA, earlier had sent out a letter acknowledging Lampe's buyout clause with Real Madrid and clearing him to join the NBA. But that changed on draft day, when FIBA sent out another letter saying that Lampe does not have a buyout clause. Lampe had no time to assure teams his status was set. NBA teams had no time to react to a change in the draft board.

"That's just wrong," Kreiter says. "For them to do that at the 11th hour like that is wrong. We're going to have the best lawyers in the world working on this."

Kreiter adds: "We knew about the contract. We had a buyout."

Of course, it's too late for legal action to help out Lampe's draft status.

Lampe was the NBA's draft-day nightmare last week, the young guy projected to go in the lottery but still sitting in the green room, eyes getting redder as the first round dwindled to the 20s and, finally, ran out altogether. Seems the letter FIBA sent spooked lottery teams, but if Lampe was a top 10 pick before FIBA's mystery letter, he certainly would be worth a chance late in the teens or early 20s, no matter what his contract status.

But a plain fact was revealed by Lampe's drop: NBA teams do not adjust well on draft night. There will be a legal fight this summer, but Kreiter says he expects Lampe to be in a Knicks uniform next season. If that's the case, there will be many teams that will regret their lack of flexibility.

"When you have your list of guys," says one NBA scout, "you are not ready for someone else to be there. We talked about him briefly, but then we stuck with our list."

The Knicks, holding the first pick in the second round, had considered Lampe with their No. 9 pick -- New York worked him out the day before the draft and liked him. With the first pick in the second round, New York general manager Scott Layden needed all of about 15 seconds to choose Lampe. Afterward, Layden was beaming, saying he can envision Lampe filling the team's long-vacant center spot.

For now, though, it will be a litigious summer for Lampe, an intelligent, well-spoken player who knows five languages and could become a national hero. Lampe could turn to international courts to sort everything out, and those courts generally have sided with players in such matters -- in the cases of Jake Tsakalidis and Nene Hilario, for instance -- and the fact is, Lampe is a player who wants to play in the NBA, not in Spain. These matters always seem to work out.

Lampe will be a Knick, and though his spirits were buoyed by the hometown crowd at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, his induction into the NBA was not what he expected. What is unfortunate is that he never will get his draft day back. If everything works out well, though, he will make teams regret that they can't get their draft day back, either.

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