The Spurs began defense of their 2003 NBA championship in a North Side conference room this summer, barely one month after their festive River Walk celebration.

General manager R.C. Buford watched Tim Duncan walk into the team's practice facility on the rain-soaked afternoon of July 16, then handed him a pen and a $122 million, seven-year contract.

That same day, the Spurs plucked Rasho Nesterovic out of Minnesota and handed him David Robinson's old job. When Stephen Jackson balked at a $10 million offer one week later, they quickly traded for Ron Mercer and Hedo Turkoglu. After Steve Kerr retired in August with five championship rings, Robert Horry arrived from Los Angeles with five of his own.

Yet for all the talent the Spurs added this summer, they may long regret the loss of one of their largest icons: Jimmy Chang.

When Mengke Bateer signed with Toronto, he took Chang, the Spurs' prodigious self-described "language consultant," with him.

That leaves coach Gregg Popovich as the team's resident linguist when training camp opens today, an unenviable job considering no fewer than seven foreign countries will be represented on the 18-player roster: France (Tony Parker), Argentina (Manu Ginobili), Slovenia (Nesterovic), Turkey (Turkoglu), New Zealand (Sean Marks), Yugoslavia (Igor Rakocevic) and Brazil (Alex Garcia).

With their first workout scheduled to begin in three days, the Spurs are close to finalizing their training camp roster.

Point guard Igor Rakocevic, centers Sean Marks and Ernest Brown and guard Larry Ayuso all have been invited and given non-guaranteed contracts.

Forward Dan Langhi and Brazilian guard Alex Ribeiro also may be added to the roster before Tuesday.

Rakocevic played 42 games for Minnesota last season while Marks appeared in 44 games the past two years with Miami. Brown, a former second-round pick of Miami, spent last season in the NBA's developmental league. Ayuso played on Puerto Rico's national team during the recent Olympic qualifying tournament in San Juan.

Of the 12 Spurs with guaranteed contracts, six are holdovers from last year's playoff roster.

Stephen Jackson, so I'm told, failed to show up for a scheduled Clipper audition late last week, claiming his flight from Texas to L.A. (he took a later one) had been canceled. That was later discovered to be untrue. Then the 6-8 swingman left town early the next morning before coach Mike Dunleavy could eyeball him on the floor. Why the flagrant irresponsibility? Surely the Hawks must be offering more money, more years, more minutes, more something. Well, it's certainly not more money or years. The most Jackson can pocket in Atlanta is $1M for 2003-04, whereas the Clips were offering the Spurs free agent $2.5M per for two, but no longer. "We've decided to go in a new direction," underlined an L.A. official.

Center Sean Marks has signed with the San Antonio Spurs after two injury-riddled seasons with the Heat, agent Marc Fleisher said Friday.

Marks, a member of the New Zealand national team that finished fourth at the 2002 World Championships, was limited to 44 games in his two seasons under Pat Riley.

The 6-foot-10 outside shooter faces long odds with the Spurs, with Tim Duncan, Rasho Nesterovic, Malik Rose, Kevin Willis and Robert Horry already in place in San Antonio's power rotation.

Fleisher, who also represents Heat free-agent center Vladimir Stepania, said Stepania has yet to reach a free-agent agreement. Fleisher said there has not been contact with the Heat regarding Stepania since Wednesday.

Who says Jason Terry isn't a point guard? Hawks coach Terry Stotts called him "one of the best point guards in the East" at a news conference Thursday announcing that the team matched the three-year, $22.5 million offer sheet Terry signed with the Utah Jazz.

And shortly after he was signed and sealed, Terry was delivering assists left and right.

After expressing his excitement about staying in Atlanta --- "This is the only place I wanted to be," he said --- and shaking hands with the Hawks' new ownership group, which was in attendance, Terry said he is aiding general manager Billy Knight in his free agent pursuits.

"I've already been on the phone, talking to whatever free agents we have left, namely [San Antonio Spurs forward] Stephen Jackson," Terry said, flashing a grin. "[I'm] trying to coerce him to come on and join us. I told him, 'There is a spot open for you in that backcourt. You'll fit in real well with us . . .and help us win.' "

Terry, approaching his fifth season in the league, will earn about $8 million this season, including a $4 million signing bonus. With Terry in place, the Hawks' payroll will be about $51 million for just 10 players. The team still needs starters at small forward and shooting guard.

Raja Bell said Thursday that he plans to sign early next week with Atlanta, Utah or San Antonio.

Bell, a free agent who was a defensive specialist at shooting guard and small forward for the Mavericks last season, said the Mavs offered him a two-year contract at the league minimum early in the off-season, which he rejected. "After that," Bell said, "I never received another offer from them."

Utah has a spot for Bell because Atlanta decided Thursday to match the Jazz's three-year, $22.5 million offer sheet to guard Jason Terry. But Bell said the Spurs and Hawks are also in the picture for his services.

"I would have loved to have been back with the Mavericks," Bell said. "I waited all summer for them, but I guess we just saw things different."

The Mavericks already have 15 players, the NBA maximum, under contract. One of those contracts, for rookie Jon Stefansson, is not guaranteed, but he is expected to make the team.

So you're an NBA GM seeking to add one final piece to your roster for the 2003-04 season? Maybe an athletic guy who can run the floor, shoot the three and play more than one position? How about a guy with playoff experience? That would be nice.

So you start perusing the list of available free agents, only to find the usual assortment of journeymen, castoffs and over-the-hill types. Then, suddenly, one name jumps out at you: Stephen Jackson. Stephen Jackson?

You mean the the 6-foot-8 swingman who started for last year's NBA champion Spurs? The guy who averaged 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds during the playoffs? The guy who poured in 17 points in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, helping the Spurs clinch the title?

After last season Jackson had a chance to re-sign with the Spurs. Although Popovich wasn't thrilled with Jackson's penchant for turnovers and uneven play, he was willing to reward him for his contributions. The Spurs even offered Jackson, who made $700,000 a year ago, a three-year deal worth around $10 million, according to sources.

What happened?

Call it bad planning. Or bad timing. Or maybe a little of both.

Five months after ending his career with his second NBA championship, David Robinson will return to the SBC Center on Nov. 10 to have his No. 50 jersey retired.
The Spurs will honor Robinson in a ceremony following their game against Utah. The starting time for the game has been moved to 7 p.m.

Tickets for the game, along with all other individual-game tickets, will go on sale Oct. 4.

Robinson will join George Gervin (No. 44), James Silas (No. 13) and Johnny Moore (No. 00) as the only Spurs to have their jerseys retired.

"With all that he has accomplished ? both on and off the court ? David Robinson is the consummate professional athlete," Spurs chairman Peter Holt said. "David embodies everything the Spurs are about. All of us in the Spurs organization are so proud to be able to retire his jersey."

Mario Elie had already waited two years for an NBA coaching job. So, when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called Wednesday to say he had a staff opening, Elie certainly wasn't going to hold out for an offer.

"Pop," Elie said, interrupting Popovich 15 seconds into his pitch, "I'm your man."

Four years after helping prod the Spurs to their first championship, Elie is bringing his fiery, yet infectious, personality back to the team as an assistant coach.

He replaces Mike Brown, who left Wednesday to become Rick Carlisle's lead assistant in Indiana.

"I'm the happiest man in the world right now," Elie said. "When I retired two years ago, I let everyone know I wanted to get into coaching. I didn't burn any bridges and just tried to stay patient. Now I'm getting to go to a first-class organization where I know and like the guys. I'm just ecstatic."

The San Antonio Spurs hope 3 inches can make a Texas-size difference at the SBC Center.

Spurs Sports and Entertainment, the corporation that oversees the defending NBA championship franchise and manages the nearly year-old, county-owned arena, is reconfiguring about 14,000 of the building's 18,500 seats to provide more comfort and convenience.

The Spurs organization will spend "several hundred thousands of dollars" to make the change in response to complaints and fan surveys, officials said.

"No tax dollars will be used" in the project, SBC Center General Manager Stephen Zito said Thursday at a news conference.

Crews with Irwin Seating, the company based in Grand Rapids, Mich., that supplied seating in the arena, began the work Tuesday, and they plan to finish by Oct. 1, well before the Spurs preseason home opener Oct. 17, against the New York Knicks.

Most of the work is scheduled to be completed in time for a Sept. 27 home game of the San Antonio Rampage in the arena's 7,000-seat hockey configuration.

The backs of the arena's fully padded seats, originally installed at a 20- to 22-degree pitch for theater-style seating, are being tilted forward slightly to 10 to 12 degrees to allow for 2.5 to 3 inches more space between seating rows. Spurs officials said they asked season-ticket holders and others to test the new pitch to ensure comfort.