There's a story (and apparently witnesses too) that the man who placed the envelopes into the tank pressed the fourth envelope against the side of the tank, thereby causing a crease that would be identifiable to Stern, who allegedly felt a few envelopes before picking the winner.

Before the draft there was a lot of talk that the Knicks had a real need for Ewing while the league had an interest in the star of the draft going to its largest market. So the conspiracy theories were stirring before the lottery. This could have been avoided by having team representatives select envelopes for the order of selection.

In reality I don't think Stern would fix it, but as this process for selection was in its infancy, not enough was done to remove the veil of impropriety. Certainly, Stern was jubilant that Ewing went to NY.