George Karl returned to the NBA with a 106-100 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the team he last coached.

``I'm going to drink beer,'' Karl said. ``Beer tastes like champagne after wins like tonight.''

``You always want to win against your former team,'' Denver's Marcus Camby said. ``He didn't say publicly he wanted to beat the Bucks, but you could just tell he wanted this one real bad.''

Toni Kukoc, a key contributor to the suprising Bucks last season off the bench, is unsure what role he plays on this years team.  At age 36, Kukoc still wants to play, feels he can contribute, but coach Terry Porter has used the Croatian forward sparingly.  The 16 minutes Kukoc played against New York on Sunday were 16 more than he had played in either of the two previous games.

?Coach told me before the season that I?m not going to play the same amount of minutes I played last year,? Kukoc said. ?But at the same time, sitting on the bench and not playing at all. . . .

?Every time there?s a game, I?m trying to get myself ready to play and I?m excited about playing. But as the time in the game goes by, especially in the second half, and you don?t have any minutes, you absolutely know that you?re not going to play. And it?s kind of hard to accept.?

?Toni?s been around,? Porter said. ?I have no problem using Toni. I haven?t lost any confidence in him or anything like that.?

In Herb Williams' debut as the Knicks' head coach, at least for the remainder of this season, Desmond Mason poured in 22 points, leading six Bucks scoring double figures in a 101-96 victory.

This was the tenth loss in 11 games for the Knicks, one day after Lenny Wilkens stepped down as coach.

Stephon Marbury had 33 points to lead the Knicks and Jamal Crawford had 20.  

Michael Sweetney gave the Knicks a silver lining by turning in another good game off the bench at 14 points, 11 rebounds.

Meanwhile, Crawford said that he was sure the decision for Wilkens to leave was Wilkens' alone, despite rampant speculation to the contrary.

Coach Williams said he does not know if the Knicks will fill the assistant coaching spot vacated when he moved up to take the top coaching job.

In a statement issued by the Milwaukee Bucks' GM Larry Harris, it was announced that 2nd year PG T.J. Ford would not return this season. The announcement came as a result of a series of tests and consultations Ford undervent with surgeon Robert Watkins on Monday.

Ford was the 8th overall selection in the 2003 NBA Draft and led all rookies in assists, averaging 6.5 per game. He bruised his spinal cord in a collision with Minnesota's Mark Madsen on February 24th. He has not returned since.

"His spinal cord bruise continues to improve but has not healed enough to allow him to play," said Bucks general manager Larry Harris. "In the meantime, T.J will continue his rehabilitation and will participate in non-basketball activities with the team."

One thing about these San Antonio Spurs, they don?t stay down for long. Two days removed from a buzzer-beating loss to the depleted Utah Jazz, the Spurs bounced back to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 94-79.

San Antonio shared the wealth on the offensive end, led by Tim Duncan?s 21. Three other players broke into double figures, including Tony Parker with 20, marking the fourth consecutive game he?s gone over that mark. Manu Ginobili added 15, and Brent Barry came off the bench to score 11.

Milwaukee tried to keep it close, even leading at the end of the first quarter 23-22. But, the Spurs rebounded in the second to take a nine-point lead into halftime. A 14-6 run to start the third period pushed the Spurs lead to 17, and they were in complete control for the rest of the way.

Michael Redd led a brief charge that cut the Spurs lead to six points early in the fourth, but Parker hit a three-pointer that started yet another Spurs run, extending their lead to 15, the game?s final margin.

Redd led all scorers with 24.

Milwaukee Bucks center Dan Gadzuric left Tuesday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks with stomach pains and was taken to an Atlanta hospital for tests.

Gadzuric thought he might have had a bad reaction to something he ate for breakfast, Bucks spokesman Matt Wessel said.

Gadzuric played only six minutes, scoring two points, before leaving the game. He was not expected to return to the game, according to Wessel.

The Milwaukee Bucks waived guards Kendall Gill and Eddie House on Wednesday.

They also activated forward Toni Kukoc and center Daniel Santiago from the injured list.

Kendall Gill signed as a free agent with the Bucks on December 6, 2004. He appeared in 14 games and maintained averages of 6.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 20.3 minutes.

Eddie House signed as a free agent with the Bucks on December 18, 2004. He played in five games for Milwaukee and averaged 3.2 points and 1.0 assist in 8.2 minutes.

Life was great for Shawn Respert 10 years ago.

He was averaging nearly 26 points a game as a senior for the Spartans and the shooting guard impressed enough people to be the eighth pick in the 1995 NBA draft.

Everything changed toward the end of his rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

His stomach started bothering him, so he altered his diet. But that didn't make the unbearable cramps go away.

"One day I felt a lump the size of a marble below my belly button," Respert said. "After I finally saw a doctor a couple weeks later, the lump had gotten bigger."

When medicine didn't make the lump go away, Respert went through a series of tests at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Milwaukee in May of 1996.

"When the doctor said, 'You have cancer in your abdomen,' I said, 'C'mon. There's no way. I'm 23 and I'm in the NBA,'" Respert recalled during a telephone interview from Houston, where he lives and works. "I was in denial, so I got a second opinion. But then another doctor in Milwaukee verified that I had cancerous cells in my stomach."

Respert underwent radiation therapy every day for three straight months, but his condition didn't improve.

"When doctors then said we had to do more radiation and medicine, that's when reality hit me that this was truly for real," he said. "I had been optimistic before that and was worried about proving that I was worth the eighth pick, but then I started concentrating on just getting healthy."

Jermaine O'Neal had himself a game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Conseco Fieldhouse, scoring 55 points, on 18-28 from the floor and 19-25 from the charity stripe.

He also had 11 rebounds in only 36 minutes of play, as the Pacers bead the Bucks 116-99.

The Pacers improved their record to 16-13.

O'Neal had 31 points in the Pacers' previous game against the New Jersey Nets.