After a relatively quiet offseason, the Rockets started training camp Tuesday with the attention-grabbing clap of a pair of major roster moves.

The Rockets sent veteran forward Glen Rice and two draft picks -- next season's first-round pick and a pick acquired from Chicago -- to Utah to pick up center John Amaechi and a chunk of spending money. They then immediately used the extra cash to sign free-agent shooter-for-hire Jim Jackson to a three-year contract worth, according to sources familiar with the deal, $7.3 million.

Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said the deals were made to free the Rockets from the luxury tax hit they expected without hurting themselves and even potentially strengthening the roster at small forward.

"It's just so much easier to live under the cap," Dawson said. "If you can't do that, you try to live under the luxury tax (because of) the restrictions. This enabled us to get under the luxury tax and enabled us to get Jim Jackson."

The Rockets sent Rice, in the final season of a contract that uses $9.6 million of cap space, to Utah along with the draft choice next season for Amaechi and a second-round pick. The trade moved them from $59.5 million in guaranteed contracts to $53 million, $2 million less than the figure expected to trigger the luxury tax.

Having moved from that threat, they were free to sign Jackson, who had long been considered the top free agent still on the market.

The trade with the Jazz also gave the Rockets a $7 million trade exception, the difference between Rice's and Amaechi's contracts, potentially allowing them to trade for a player that makes as much as $7 million more than a player dealt in any trade in the next 12 months.  

Though such a deal would return the Rockets to a luxury tax hit, the trade exception is considered valuable for future trades and is especially useful when acquired after the summer free-agency period because it could potentially be used in a sign-and-trade free-agent deal next summer.

"It loosens us up so if something else comes up, we're able to look at it," Dawson said. "A lot of people were in our situation as far as the luxury tax goes. Right now, we're out of it, so that's a big relief. We're one of the people that can do some things if the right thing comes up."

The Jazz are expected to approach Rice about a buyout of his contract. Rice would not discuss the deal or his plans.

"We're going to sit down with him and his agent and go from there," Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said.

The Timberwolves had their busiest offseason in team history this past summer, but while general manager Kevin McHale was rebuilding the team, the player he was rebuilding around was doggedly silent on the subject.

Kevin Garnett finally touched on it Monday.

"I'm excited about the year. Everybody is excited to see how we're going to look, including ourselves," the star forward said. "It's cool."

Garnett, who spent a large part of the summer in California, spent Monday zipping around the Twin Cities. He was at Target Center as General Mills unveiled a Wheaties box featuring the 7-footer gracing the cover, and he attended the launch of a Web site designed to help minority students reach educational and career goals at Minneapolis North High School.

"It's good to end the summer on a note like this," he said. "I can come chill with the kids and get their feedback on the program."

Garnett declined to comment on his contract status, and kept basketball talk to a minimum. The Wolves have an extension offer on the table, and his agent, Andy Miller, is expected to meet with McHale this week.

Garnett is entering the final year of his six-year, $126 million contract. If there is no agreement before the season starts Oct. 29, talks will end until after the season, when Garnett will become a free agent.

Garnett is eligible for 105 percent of the last year of his contract, meaning he could go from making $28 million to $29.4 million next season. After that, Garnett, who could receive up to a five-year extension, would receive a 12.5 percent raise every year. It is believed the Wolves are offering a five-year extension for nearly $100 million.

If Garnett decides to test the free-agent market, no other team can pay him as much money as the Wolves because of the salary cap. The Wolves are not restricted by the salary cap.

In eight seasons with Wolves, Garnett has led them to seven playoff appearances and been all-star six times. Last season he was the most valuable player of the All-Star Game. Yet, Garnett has not led Minnesota past the first round of the playoffs. The Wolves had home-court advantage for the first time in team history last season, but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

The Milwaukee Bucks confirmed Monday that they were working on an agreement to remove forward Anthony Mason from the team. Mason has two guaranteed years left on his contract worth about $10 million.

"We are engaged in negotiations with Anthony Mason's representative with respect to terminating his contract," general manager Larry Harris said in a statement released by the team.

Although Harris did not elaborate, it's no secret that the 37-year-old Mason doesn't fit into the team's youth movement. Also, Mason has taken blame for being a disruptive force in the locker room over the past two seasons.

Mason played in 65 games last season, averaging 7.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 32.6 minutes per game. In 2001-'02, he played in all 82 regular-season games and averaged 9.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 38.3 minutes.

Mason was signed by the Bucks as a free agent during the George Karl-Ernie Grunfeld era on Oct. 25, 2001.

David Stern is trying to get Michael Jordan back into the NBA as an owner, but it doesn't look as if Jordan will be buying the Nets, even though he has been approached about doing so.
"It's something that I'm involved in," Stern said yesterday on a conference call when asked about Jordan's future. "I continue to think that he will be back in the league. It's fair to say that it's something that's being worked on and thought about on a continuing basis."

According to a league source familiar with the sale of the Nets, Jordan and his business manager were contacted several days ago about buying the team when the "book" laying out the team's complete financial picture went out to prospective buyers.

"If Jordan was interested, he would have been all over this," the source said. "But it's not very probable that he's going to get involved. There's a lot of heavy lifting involved here."

There are good days and bad days in Rick Fox's rehabilitation from a rare brand of foot surgery, but by Friday, they'll all look quite pleasant.

Fox can't play basketball yet, and probably won't until January. So his training camp agenda in Honolulu might differ slightly from that of his Lakers teammates.

"Lay out in the sun. Drink pina coladas. Really enjoy Hawaii the way it's meant to be enjoyed," Fox said with a chuckle. "Outside of that, I'll be getting a crash course in being a general manager, sitting in the stands with Mitch Kupchak."

It has been four months since Fox underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon and realign the heel in his left foot. His surgeons believe Fox is the first NBA player to undergo this type of surgery and attempt to resume his career, and they cautioned at the time that he would need at least six to nine months of rehabilitation.

That conservative timeline is proving accurate. Fox ditched his walking boot in August, three weeks ahead of schedule, but can't run yet and probably won't for at least a few more weeks.

For now, Fox is trying to regain strength and balance, through marching and skipping exercises that will "re-train" his foot's movements.

"I don't think I'll be jumping for a while. I don't think I'll be playing for a while," Fox said. "I'm hearing January (to return to the court).' If it takes that long, I think I'll probably be bald by then. I'll probably pull out my hair."

The first defensive assignment hasn't even been blown yet, the first jump shot hasn't gone awry and already Kevin O'Neill is well-versed in one major aspect of Toronto Raptor history.

Alvin Williams is going to be banged up. And he's still going to desperately want to play.

A day before O'Neill was allowed to work officially with youngsters and three days before he can even get his mitts on the whole team, the new Raptor coach was already scheming to devise ways to get his starting point guard some all-important rest.

And it's conjured up the image of a sign posted outside the team's practice facility that's a red circle with Williams' face in the middle and a big red line right through it.

"One of the keys for Alvin is we have to take some time off," O'Neill said yesterday on the eve of training camp for Raptors with less than four years of NBA experience. "If you play a back-to-back, he's going to have to be off the next day. You may have to lock him out (of the gym) but he's going to have to be off to get some rest."

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).

A Tucson International Airport security guard testified Monday that during a search of Trail Blazer Damon Stoudamire in July, a beep sounded every time he passed his hand-held metal-detecting wand past the point guard's pants.

Stoudamire denied several times that he was hiding anything as Robert McNew of the Transportation Security Administration repeated the wand process. This time, he noticed Stoudamire wiggling his right leg, which dislodged something down the leg of his sweatpants.

A wad of aluminum foil about the size of a ketchup bottle, which was later discovered to contain about a half-ounce of marijuana, dropped to the floor.

Stoudamire was cited on unlawful possession of marijuana, his third marijuana-related incident in about 18 months.

The Warriors are bringing back former player and assistant coach Rod Higgins, according to general manager Garry St. Jean.

Higgins, a Warriors assistant coach from 1994-2000, primarily will be responsible for college scouting.

On Aug. 2, Higgins left the Washington Wizards, where he was assistant general manager for three years. Higgins and the Wizards mutually agreed to part company in the wake of general manager Ernie Grunfeld's hiring June 30.

Higgins was hired by Michael Jordan, then Washington's president of basketball operations, after the 1999-2000 season.

Jordan wanted his former Chicago Bulls teammate Higgins sooner. In late January 2000, Jordan sought permission from the Warriors to hire Higgins as coach, but the Warriors wouldn't allow Higgins out of his assistant coaching contract without compensation.

Higgins also played seven seasons with the Warriors.

The Cavaliers are expected to sign center Jelani McCoy before training camp opens for veterans Thursday.

McCoy, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound center, has five years of NBA experience, playing three years in Seattle, one with the Lakers and last season with the Raptors. He was originally drafted by the Sonics in the second round in 1998 and has averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds over 242 games in his career.

He averaged 6.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 67 games with 25 starts for the Raptors last year after making the team out of training camp. He won an NBA Championship ring with the Lakers in 2002, though he played just 21 games and was left off the playoff roster.