The saga has finally ended, Jamal Crawford has verbally agreed to a seven-year contract Wednesday that will pay him at least $56 million.

''I say that 'fair' is a relative term,'' said Crawford's agent, Aaron Goodwin. ''Jamal was always looking forward to becoming a New York Knick. But all he did was take time to think about the deal and sleep on it, just as [Bulls operations chief] John Paxson and [Knicks general manager] Isiah Thomas slept on it. Remember, it took six weeks to do this deal.

''But Jamal has accepted the contract offer, and from our perspective, we have a deal. All that we have to do now is sign documents, and I hope to have all that done no later than Friday because I'm going on a vacation next week.''

The trade as it is now will send Jamal Crawford, reserve forward Jerome Williams to the Knicks for forward Othella Harrington, former Illinois guard Frank Williams and centers Dikembe Mutombo and Cezary Trybanski.