Milwaukee Bucks head coach Terry Porter would have prefered to start his coaching career as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs but it didn't work out back in the summer of 2002.

There was an opening on the Spurs' staff but coach Greg Popovich decided against it because Porter had just been a teammate of some of the Spurs' players and Popovich thought it wouldn't be such a good idea at the time.

"We went back and forth on it," Popovich said. "One of the things I told Terry that factored into the equation was that it might be best for him to be elsewhere, so the people hearing his voice aren't the same people who had just been joking on the back of the bus with him. Secondly, it also would give him experience with another system."

Porter eventually landed an assistant coaching job later that summer on Rick Adelman's staff in Sacramento.

Although a tad tainted by his criminal conduct and ridiculous rhetoric, bidding for Rasheed Weed's services has sharply escalated within the last week. Resolved to rid themselves of the rising free agent, the Blazers gave permission to agent Bill Strickland to elicit trade propositions from teams his client would consider re-signing with come summer.

So far, all three Texas teams and the Hawks - maybe even the Pistons - are involved in the auction.

Rasheed's preference is the Rockets, according to Peter Vecsey; the obvious appeal being Yao Ming and Steve Francis, which is why they refuse to include either one in trade talk. Meaning, Houston may have to wait until the offseason to pursue Rasheed.

Unlike the Mavericks, underlines a Strickland trustee, who might be inclined to give up Antawn Jamison and Eduardo Najera (but would rather include Tariq Abdul-Wahad), depending on the health of the Lakers' feared foursome and Mark Cuban's mood following a two-game skid.

Long before the Spurs' manufactured their 12-game victory march, they offered Rasho Nesterovic, Malik Rose and Ron Mercer for Rasheed, the same source maintains.

As for the Hawks, they're eager to move Theo Ratliff and Alan Henderson for Rasheed. The Blazers countered with a request for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Stephen Jackson.

Although a tad tainted by his criminal conduct and ridiculous rhetoric, bidding for Rasheed Weed's services has sharply escalated within the last week. Resolved to rid themselves of the rising free agent, the Blazers gave permission to agent Bill Strickland to elicit trade propositions from teams his client would consider re-signing with come summer.

So far, all three Texas teams and the Hawks - maybe even the Pistons - are involved in the auction.

Rasheed's preference is the Rockets, according to Peter Vecsey; the obvious appeal being Yao Ming and Steve Francis, which is why they refuse to include either one in trade talk. Meaning, Houston may have to wait until the offseason to pursue Rasheed.

Unlike the Mavericks, underlines a Strickland trustee, who might be inclined to give up Antawn Jamison and Eduardo Najera (but would rather include Tariq Abdul-Wahad), depending on the health of the Lakers' feared foursome and Mark Cuban's mood following a two-game skid.

Long before the Spurs' manufactured their 12-game victory march, they offered Rasho Nesterovic, Malik Rose and Ron Mercer for Rasheed, the same source maintains.

As for the Hawks, they're eager to move Theo Ratliff and Alan Henderson for Rasheed. The Blazers countered with a request for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Stephen Jackson.

This summer the San Antonio Spurs had interest in Clippers forward Elton Brand but they passed because of Brand's restricted free agent status that gave the Clippers 15 days to match any offer.

The Spurs and Brands agent, David Falk, discussed a front-loaded deal that the Clippers might not match but the Spurs didn't want their capspace to be tied up by the deal.

"They had the cap room and were the defending world champions, and I was a semi-free agent, so of course I had to think about them," Brand said of the Spurs. "But we didn't talk that much.

"It was definitely understandable. When you're the defending world champions, you have to try to improve your team because everybody is going to be gunning for you. If I was unrestricted it might have been different. But they had to look in other directions."

It's a good thing that the Spurs didn't make the offer.

The Clippers matched a similar deal put forth by the Miami Heat.

Dennis Rodman is back playing professional basketball.

"Rodman, who played on five NBA championship teams with Detroit and Chicago, signed a contract with the Jam Friday, the president of the American Basketball Association's first-year franchise confirmed Sunday afternoon."

He is expected to start practicing with the team after Christmas with January 16th as the target for his first game with the team.

Rodman turns 43 in May and has a desire to return to the NBA.

After playing a league-high 29-game stretch the past eight weeks and winning their past 10 games, the San Antonio Spurs are going to get a 15-day stay at home in which they will play only four home games.

The team is happy about the rest but head coach Greg Popovich isn't.

"We finally get the time off," Gregg Popovich said, "and it's the last thing we need."

"We need to keep playing and have that flow," Popovich said. "You can't control it, but it would have been better for us to have the time off at the beginning of the year.

"The Spurs have dangled (Ron) Mercer to Denver and have interest in Nuggets shooting guard Jon Barry. Though several teams are interested in Barry, the Nuggets don't seem interested in trading the 3-point shooting threat."

"The Pistons are exploring a trade with San Antonio that would send Bobby Sura to the Spurs for Ron Mercer."

SAN ANTONIO (AP) San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich signed a contract extension Tuesday through the 2007-08 season.

Popovich, who is also the team's general manager, has led the Spurs to a pair of NBA championships during his seven years as coach, including last season's victory over the New Jersey Nets. He was the NBA coach of the year last season.

``I am very fortunate to have a group of players and a coaching staff that are quite special,'' Popovich said. ``I look forward to more enjoyable years in this wonderful city.''

Popovich has a career record of 355-195. The Spurs are 16-10 this season, and have won seven games in a row heading into Wednesday's game against Toronto.

The San Antonio Spurs have signed head coach Greg Popovich to a multiyear contract extension that runs through the 2007-08 season.

In seven seasons as head coach, Popovich has lead the Spurs to two NBA chamionships.