The NBA, after speaking to Spurs officials Friday, decided there was no tampering connected to Jason Kidd's plan to visit San Antonio.

After the Nets star's plan to visit San Antonio on July6 and 7 was disclosed Thursday, some people wondered how he arrived at those dates. Spurs GM R.C. Buford told a San Antonio reporter that was the first he had heard of such a visit.

No team may negotiate with Kidd or his agent, Jeff Schwartz, before Tuesday, when free agents become free to talk to anyone.

"We spoke to the Spurs to make sure nobody was to (make contact) in an inappropriate manner," a league spokesman said.

Summertime, and the livin' is easy. The hard part, for NBA free agents, is finding teams offering maximum salary slots.

Jason Kidd is almost guaranteed to get "max" money, whether it's from the Nets or Spurs.

But as free agency starts Tuesday for 142 other free agents, including 13 former All-Stars, just about everyone else is going to feel the effects of a league-wide recession.

Only four teams - the Spurs, Nuggets, Jazz and Clippers, who never spend any money - have the potential to offer maximum salaries. A handful of teams, including the Heat, could be anywhere from $4 million to $6 million under the cap.

But the vast majority of teams are either capped out or wary of over-spending because of the luxury tax. So the best they can do is offer the $4.5 million exception. That's not exactly big money, but times are tough all over.

After surviving the first round of cuts for the United States junior national team earlier this month, Al Jefferson, a 6-foot-9 high school senior, wrote USA Basketball a letter saying he would not be joining the team.

Instead of playing for his country in a prestigious international competition against top-flight opponents, Jefferson chose to play for his Nike-sponsored summer traveling team. Jefferson, one of the top ? if not the top ? high school seniors in the country, will play at Nike's all-American camp in Indianapolis in July and help his Amateur Athletic Union team defend the national championship it won last summer.

So while the junior national team practiced this week under the eyes of top college coaches at the American Airlines Center ? where the Dallas Mavericks practice ? Jefferson was hoping his high school coach in Prentiss, Miss., would unlock the gym, according to Larry Stamps, Jefferson's summer traveling team coach.

"He had made some prior commitments," Stamps said of Jefferson in a telephone interview. "Obviously, he respects USA Basketball a lot. But we all have to make tough decisions sometime in our life."

Basketball's changing culture, and its focus on self-interest, has undermined the junior national team and the Pan American team.

Zoran Planinic woke up to air-raid sirens when he was 10 years old and followed his mother and older sister downstairs into the basement.

Living in Mostar, a city in Bosnia-Herzegovina, his family ate from humanitarian aid packages during the war in the Balkans.

For six months they were without electricity. For 10 days, he was without his father, Jozo. The family had made frantic attempts to reach Jozo as he was fighting for Croatia but heard nothing. Then one day, Planinic saw his father through the basement window, walking through the door of the apartment building.

The war stretched for four years, but its scars are still embedded in Planinic's consciousness at age 20.

"It was hard," Planinic said Friday, sitting in the lounge bar of the Regency Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. "But we made it somehow."

Shrugging, he added, "That time I have kept to myself; I don't think about it."

Claims that Jason Kidd will visit San Antonio July 6-7 as part of his free agency experience yesterday triggered a chain of questions and denials regarding potential illegal contact before the July 1 negotiating period.

Privately, the Nets must wonder how the fixed dates were determined without contact between the Spurs and Kidd. Teams may negotiate starting Tuesday and then sign free agents July 16. Prior contact is forbidden.

"We have spoken to the Spurs and they have assured us that they have not and will not have any contact with free agents until July 1," a league spokesman said yesterday.

And Kidd's agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, reiterated what he said Thursday night when the report aired on ESPN that Kidd intended to visit on those days, eventually sign on July 16 and also had interest in Dallas, Denver plus the Nets. Schwartz indicated that no dates have been set and there has been no illegal contact.

But you can't blame the Nets for being a little touchy. The Spurs were less than tickled in 2000 when there were reports, prior to the negotiating date, that both Tim Duncan and Grant Hill would visit Orlando on the same weekend.

Jason Kidd will visit San Antonio, probably on July 6 and 7, and he hopes to make his decision on where he'll sign by July 16, the earliest a free agent can sign a contract.

Kidd's agent, Jeff Schwartz, said those dates were not set in stone. But late last night, Schwartz confirmed an ESPN report that Kidd planned to visit San Antonio and sign relatively quickly. Schwartz also said that Kidd would probably talk with the Nets for the first time on July 1.

"We're going to speak to the Nets as soon as it is allowable under the rules, but Jason wants to visit a few other cities and see what else is out there," Schwartz told a pool reporter. "Once he has accumulated all the information, he will make his decision."

Schwartz said Kidd has narrowed his list of potential teams to four: San Antonio, because he could play with Tim Duncan; Dallas, especially if the Mavericks got Alonzo Mourning; the Nuggets, for no reason anyone can seem to fathom; and, of course, the Nets.

Kidd was unavailable for comment last night.

Nets president Rod Thorn seemed a little surprised by the news, admitting he did not expect Kidd to visit San Antonio because he had been there before as a player. Still, Thorn said the news did not upset him.

"He's a free agent," Thorn said. "He can do what he wants to do. He sets the schedule. He and his agent set the schedule."

Free agent negotiating can get under way on July 1. Signings can start on July 16, but the posturing has already begun.

Jason Kidd, whose free agency could make or break the Nets plans, will visit other cities including San Antonio and possibly Dallas and Denver. Kidd's intentions were announced last night in a televised report which said he will make his decision by July 16 after visiting the Spurs on July 6-7.

"I assumed he was going to visit San Antonio. Denver doesn't act like it plays into what he's looking for but obviously they have a lot of money so we shall see. Dallas, the only way is some sort of sign and trade and that's very far fetched," said team president Rod Thorn.

As early plans for The Jason Kidd Summer 2003 Free Agency Tour were being announced on television, the Nets went and drafted a point guard, going overseas for their first round pick for a second straight year.

And if Zoran Planinic, a 6-7 guard, turns out to be anywhere as good as the last Croatian the Nets had in uniform, then their draft night will be one to remember. Planinic, who said he expects to play for the Nets next year, will be the first Croatian since the late Drazen Petrovic to play for New Jersey.

"I know everything about him," Planinic said of the Hall of Famer Petrovic. "I was young when he played but I watched him on tapes. I watched him everywhere. Drazen is No. 1. Every kid in Croatia look to him. He is the idol of everybody."

In the second round, with the 51st pick, the Nets selected 6-7 small forward Kyle Korver of Creighton, but immediately dealt him to Philadelphia.

While Planinic was at the top of the Nets' wish list at No. 22, according to team president Rod Thorn, it certainly doesn't hurt that he has point guard skills, not with a televised report that Kidd plans to visit San Antonio while expressing interest in both Dallas and Denver, along with the Nets.

As the story gets told now, the waiting began a little more than two weeks ago, when a team and a player found each other but had to hang around to see if their newfound love would be a lasting one.

Zoran Planinic, a 20-year-old Croatian point guard, worked out for the Nets on June 11. It was the second time he worked out for them, and it was the last workout Planinic did -- for the Nets or anyone else. Conveniently, Planinic tweaked his back during the workout, so he couldn't try out for any other team.

That was fine with the Nets -- they knew from that they had just seen the player they wanted, a guy they had rated as the top point guard of any they worked out, and they didn't particularly want anyone else to get a look at him.

"Planinic was a guy we were hoping to get," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "He was terrific in workout."

And it was fine with Planinic, since the Nets were the team he had his heart set on.

"I really hoped the Nets would select me, because the team is incredibly good and I wanted to play for a winning team," Planinic said.

Jason Kidd will visit San Antonio, probably on July 6 and 7, and he hopes to make his decision on where he'll sign by July 16, the earliest a free agent can sign a contract.

Kidd's agent, Jeff Schwartz, said those dates were not set in stone. But late last night, Schwartz confirmed an ESPN report that Kidd planned to visit San Antonio and sign relatively quickly. Schwartz also said that Kidd would probably talk with the Nets for the first time on July 1.

"We're going to speak to the Nets as soon as it is allowable under the rules, but Jason wants to visit a few other cities and see what else is out there," Schwartz told a pool reporter. "Once he has accumulated all the information, he will make his decision."

Schwartz said Kidd has narrowed his list of potential teams to four: San Antonio, because he could play with Tim Duncan; Dallas, especially if the Mavericks got Alonzo Mourning; the Nuggets, for no reason anyone can seem to fathom; and, of course, the Nets.

Kidd was unavailable for comment last night.

Nets president Rod Thorn seemed a little surprised by the news, admitting he did not expect Kidd to visit San Antonio because he had been there before as a player. Still, Thorn said the news did not upset him.

"He's a free agent," Thorn said. "He can do what he wants to do. He sets the schedule. He and his agent set the schedule."