Fans Excited About Ewing; His Agents, Too

WASHINGTON — While telephone lines at Madison Square Garden in New York were jammed Monday by fans requesting Knicks’ season tickets and a steady line of people snaked around the outside of the team’s ticket offices, Patrick Ewing’s agents were busy, too.

The agents for Ewing, who was first prize in Sunday’s NBA draft lottery, are David Falk and Donald Dell. And, as might be expected, they were taking a hard line in the aftermath of the lottery in which the Knicks won the right to pick the Georgetown star.

“It’s too early to speculate on contract talks,” said Falk, who then, in essence, did just that. “This is an unique year because it’s the first year of the NBA lottery and the No. 1 pick in the country is a prime asset. The lottery has reduced the chances of a team getting the No. 1 player from one in two to one in seven. So when you take the No. 1 asset and you make it more scarce, you increase its value.”

To which Dell added, “He doesn’t have to sign with anybody. We have a long negotiation ahead of us. He doesn’t have to sign with anybody or do anything. The options are still there.”