June 29, 2003 -- Knicks GM Scott Layden said he drafted 141/2 feet of center Thursday. But if 18-year-old 7-footer Majiec Lampe, who has a small forward's game, and 7-6 Slavko Vranes are not ready for the rotation, then the Knicks will not have accomplished their goal of getting "longer" in the frontcourt for next season.
If 6-8 Mike Sweetney becomes the opening-night starter at power forward, the Knicks still will be undersized at all three frontcourt positions, including at center, where 6-9 Kurt Thomas continues to masquerade as a pivot.
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June 28, 2003 -- The Knicks believe Maciej Lampe's contract buyout clause with Real Madrid is much to do about nothing and plan to prove it in the next few days with a contract agreement. The Knicks, Real Madrid and Lampe's agent spoke yesterday to try to hammer out the details to clear the 7-foot small forward to play for the Knicks next season. GM Scott Layden said he wants the 18-year-old with the club "as soon as possible," and Lampe added, "I would like to stay here." Many believe Lampe's stunning drop out of the lottery and to the Knicks at 30 was due to non-lottery teams not doing their homework on the perimeter-shooting Pole. He played most of last season for Real Madrid's minor league team, but is being called the next Dirk Nowitzki.
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June 28, 2003 -- It does not mean 7-6 Serbian giant Slavko Vranes will become an NBA star, but at least the Knicks' other second-round pick already has already dominated the French phantom Frederic Weis when they went at each other last season. Kevin Wilson, the Knicks' European scout who is based in Spain, caught two games Vranes' Serbian team played against Malaga. The 7-2 Weis, a '99 first-rounder who is still Knick property, patrols the Malaga post. It was no contest.
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June 27, 2003 -- When Knicks' GM Scott Layden came to bat at No. 9 last night at the NBA draft, he figured he had a choice of either power forward Mike Sweetney or the Polish 7-foot small forward project Maciej Lampe. Layden never figured he could get both.
After a stunning drop by Lampe, projected as high as five, Layden believes he selected two lottery picks last night. In nabbing two frontcourt players, the Knicks have one ready to contribute next season and another who may not be ready for a year or two but who already is the darling of Knick fans.
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June 27, 2003 -- ELVIS wore a cream colored suit, a shiny blue cap, and a stony expression that everyone inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden could relate to. That roar? That was for every JV hacker who never was quite good enough to make the varsity. It was for the 11th kid in every schoolyard who couldn't get picked for a full-court 5-on-5. "We want Lampe!" they cried. "We want Lampe!" they yelped. "We want Lampe!" they bellowed. "Hopefully," Maciej Lampe said, "I'll be able to pay them back someday." Let's be brutally honest for a second, OK? A few days ago you never heard of Maciej Lampe. You still have no idea if he's ever going to be any good and, really, neither do the Knicks. He is, in the grand old basketball tradition, a "Project," capital "P," a 7-foot question mark.
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June 27, 2003 -- FI-RE LAY-DEN. FI-RE LAY-DEN.
You heard the chorus from the lynch mob before Scott Layden drafted 6-foot-8 (maybe) Mike Sweetney, and you heard them again after he drafted an undersized power forward that Most of New York mocked as power backward. You heard it the second Layden's face surfaced overhead on the Yao Ming-sized television high atop The Theater at the Garden to try to explain himself.
FI-RE LAY-DEN. FIRE LAY-DEN.
"I think it's absolutely the worst pick they could have made," 15-year-old Justin Baldinger was saying. "They have too many undersized power forwards as it is."
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