Newspapers and Internet websites have been reporting that Kevin Garnett has quietly asked out of Minnesota, but Sam Mitchell played with Garnett and doesn't give credit to the rumors.

"I just can't hear him uttering those words (trade me)," said Mitchell. "Everything he's been through thus far he hasn't said it. So why would he do it now? I can't see it. Because he's not the type of guy who's going to give up."

T.J. Ford has Toronto in first place in the Atlantic Division, even without Chris Bosh.

Ford scored 28 points and Anthony Parker added 19 to lead Toronto to a 100-97 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday night.

The Raptors are 6-4 without Bosh (sore left knee), their leading scorer. He isn't expected back until Jan. 3 when Toronto hosts Phoenix.

Abed Hassuneh, the brother of a man who filed a lawsuit against Eddie Griffin, called police shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, about an hour after Griffin and a friend came to his store near the University of Minnesota.

Once at the store, Hassuneh said, Griffin had a store employee call him at home and that was when the player threatened him and called him names.

"It's an uncivilized way of settling something," Hassuneh said Saturday. "He started making threats that he'd have people to deal with me."

Griffin confirmed to a reporter that he went to the store and had spoken with Hassuneh on the phone. "I went there yesterday and asked him why he was doing that," Griffin said late Friday.

He said he told Hassuneh that an allegation that he was masturbating at the time of the accident was false and that nobody should have said that.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Trenton Hassell was deactivated before the game against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night because of the flu.

A team spokesman said Hassell woke up ill and stayed at the team hotel.

Hassell had started every game for the Timberwolves this year. He is averaging 6.1 points.

Latrell Sprewell has said very little following the 2004-2005 season, which saw him turn down a three-year $21 million offer from the Timberwolves.

He apparently had dinner last week with former teammates Kevin Garnett, Trenton Hassell and Troy Hudson when the Timberwolves were in Milwaukee.

"He's doing great," Hudson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "Spree's in great spirits. He looks like he could play 48 minutes."

Except, Sprewell is apparently done with the NBA. "He just said he's enjoying his time off," Hudson said.

A Western Conference executive maintained the Nuggets, Minnesota, Boston and the Los Angeles Clippers were the main teams interested in acquiring Allen Iverson.

"The real players in an Iverson trade are the main ones that have been talked about," the Western Conference executive said. "It's not like the Utah Jazz are going to have 'a come to Jesus' meeting and trade for A.I. Billy already has his serious players. The deals are already 90-95 percent there. At some point he has to pull the trigger.

"He's been talking to (Indiana CEO and president) Donnie Walsh, who has the world's slowest trigger. And he's been talking to (ex-Sixers coach) Larry Brown, who has the world's fastest trigger."

According to a source, the Timberwolves are still mulling whether or not it would be worth it to trade Randy Foye in a package for Allen Iverson.

The Wolves are very high on Foye and aren't sure that the short-term gains are worth the long-term loss.

Foye is reportedly the player most coveted by the Sixers.

Another factor in the Wolves' favor is their $4.1 million trade exception, among the largest in the league, which can be used to help facilitate trades.

The Denver Nuggets are leading a tight, three-team race for Philadelphia 76ers star guard Allen Iverson, but the Timberwolves are a very close second, according to a Western Conference executive.

The key to the Nuggets completing a deal is finding a third team to help facilitate the trade, including moving several players whose contracts will expire after this season or next.

"It's a race," the executive said Friday. "(The Nuggets) have the best chance and the best hand. But they need someone else badly. ? I'd say (the Nuggets) with Minnesota are 1 and 1A. Then Beantown. I can't believe Miami is a real player."

Denver could execute a deal for Iverson without involving a third team but prefers to include a third team to keep from losing players.

The source said the Timberwolves are offering guards Mike James, Marko Jaric, Ricky Davis and Trenton Hassell.

At least four Western Conference teams remain interested in Allen Iverson, according to several executives in the league: Denver, Memphis, Minnesota, and the Los Angeles Clippers. In the East, Boston and Indiana are interested.

Several executives said they believed a deal would come by the end of the week, after the Dec. 14 deadline passes enabling players who signed contracts over the summer to be included, perhaps in a multiteam deal.

Executives at two N.B.A. teams with knowledge of the Sixers? interest said Tuesday that the Sixers were targeting Warriors forward Troy Murphy, as well as guard Jason Richardson.

Minnesota has been more involved in the Allen Iverson than widely reported, according to a source who characterized Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor's statements to the contrary as "a smokescreen."

"If Kevin Garnett goes in to Taylor and says, "I want this to happen,' then this is going to happen," the person said.