Some foreign intrigue nearly forced the Knicks to settle for the same ol', same ol' last night, but it ultimately enabled them to get the two forwards they wanted for the price of one.

Maciej Lampe, the teen-aged sniper whom Knicks president Scott Layden intended to draft at the No. 9 position in the NBA Draft, slid all the way out of the first round because of leaguewide misunderstanding about his contractual status with Real Madrid -- enabling the Knicks to steal him with the first pick in the second round.

It capped an extraordinary evening at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden, where fans were lukewarm over the Knicks' first-round choice, Georgetown forward Mike Sweetney, and delirious over the selection of Lampe, the 6-11 jump-shooting forward from Poland.

An ESPN report said Lampe had dropped like a stone because he never received FIBA clearance to be drafted. Agent Keith Krieter denied that interpretation, and said the delay in his client's selection was because teams were not aware of a buyout clause in Lampe's contract.

According to a Knicks official, that was his agent's blunder. Krieter did not alert teams to a recent FIBA memo that was erroneous. Once Lampe slipped out of the lottery, there was no stopping the momentum: The teams picking 12 through 29 let him slide all the way to No. 30 because they never worked him out.

"We had a buyout, and the thing was that a letter from FIBA came in telling teams that I didn't have a buyout," said Lampe, clearly distraught as his name kept plummeting. "But I thought everyone pretty much knew about the contract situation."