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MIKE'S SWEET KNICK DEBUT 
 
By MARC BERMAN 
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 First-round draft pick Mike Sweetney tore it up with 17 first-half points in 
Knicks' 76-71 loss to Bucks in summer-league opener yesterday.  
 Knicks second-round draft pick Maciej Lampe (left, battling Bucks' Norm 
Richardson) looked overmatched in summer-league debut yesterday.
- AP  

July 15, 2003 -- BOSTON - Mike Sweetney looked ready to battle for the 
Knicks' starting power forward job with a 20-point, eight rebound outing. Maciej 
Lampe looked ready for the minors - the Spanish league minors, where he played 
last season. 
It was a good news/bad news summer-league opener for the Knicks, who dropped 
a 76-71 decision to the Bucks at UMass-Boston because Lampe stopped playing 
defense across the game's final six minutes. 

With 1:30 left, Bucks center Marcus Haislip put the finishing touches on 
Lampe's nightmare, dunking over the 18-year-old Polish player's head on the break. 

Minutes earlier, Haislip had soared for an alley-oop jam, with Lampe fastened 
to the floor. The 7-foot Lampe went from bad to worse to clueless. When his 
shot wouldn't fall, his defense suffered. 

Lampe scored two points in 28 minutes (1-of-7 from the field), with three 
rebounds, three turnovers and five fouls. Two of his shots were blocked and he 
never got to the foul line. 

"It was a horrible game for me," Lampe said. "It was a bad day. Today it was 
just a joke. I made my whole team look bad." 

The Knicks' other second-round pick, 7-6 Slavko Vranes, had four fouls in 
eight minutes of play, and questioned the refs on each one. 

On Draft Night, Lampe was hailed as a possible lottery pick, but fell to the 
second round where the Knicks nabbed him at 30, claiming him the steal of the 
draft. 

One league scout said yesterday: "People say it was the [Spanish league] 
contract that had him drop. It's his skill. He's slow. A lot of big guys could 
shoot. He was a good pick from 20-29, a great pick at 30. But lottery? No way." 

Thank goodness for Sweetney, who displayed interior grittiness and showed why 
he was chosen ninth. He established himself inside and got to the foul line. 
The Georgetown product, who had 17 points at halftime, made 7 of 8 free 
throws. Five of his eight boards were offensive. 

"He really runs the floor hard in both directions," Knicks GM Scott Layden 
said. "It's a talent not many players have. By doing that, he's able to get 
offensive rebounds and baskets." 

Layden wouldn't knock Lampe, who got two early post-ups and bricked both. "We 
won't overreact either too high or too low on any one game," Layden said. 
"Early in the game you see him posting up and he has a couple of jump hooks. They 
don't go down and now it's a problem. That's not the case. The first four 
minutes he took his guy right in for two jump hooks. He's going to make those 
shots because he has a good touch." 

"He hasn't seen a lot of things like quickness, guys going from a standstill 
position to vertical right away," Don Chaney said. "He's got to appreciate the 
athletic skills of the players over here in America." 

* With the Knicks likely to finish third to Minnesota and San Antonio in the 
race for C Rasho Nesterovic, the brass has had plenty of internal discussion 
about Michael Olowokandi. His reputation as an attitude problem is a concern, 
but if he slips to a $4.9M mid-level exception, the Knicks likely would pounce. 
League source said the Clippers feel Chris Kaman is already a better low-post 
center than Olowokandi. PG Speedy Claxton contends he won't re-sign with San 
Antonio and the Knicks are among his six finalists.. . . Kiss free agent Lavor 
Postell goodbye. He's playing for Dallas' summer team here.