ALLAS - There were 50-60 tickets available for Thursday night's Suns-Grizzlies game in Memphis. That's because native Tennessean Tony Delk wasn't around to distribute them to friends and family.

Instead, he was 45 minutes away, in his hometown of Brownsville, Tenn., tending to his ailing father, Leslie. But that wasn't why Delk wasn't playing in Memphis. By then, he was no longer a Sun. By then, he was a Boston Celtic.

''We took a trip [to Memphis] for nothing,'' Delk said yesterday prior to his first practice with his new team. ''We flew to Memphis for the game and we made the trip thinking there wasn't going to be a trade. As soon as we landed, they dumped the news on us. It came as a surprise. But those guys [Suns executives] knew. The organization didn't give us that much respect, to let us know that they had a trade in mind.''