George Karl sat behind his desk while addressing the media before last night's game. The photograph of Karl coaching the Sonics is no longer in his office.

And a desktop computer is the most convincing evidence that the Milwaukee Bucks coach is no longer obsessed with his former team.

Before the season started, Karl removed his Internet bookmarks of the Seattle-area newspapers.

"I don't even have Seattle on my Web site anymore," Karl said, gesturing at his computer.

When the Sonics declined to rehire Karl after his coaching contract ended in 1998, he wasn't quiet after signing with Milwaukee.

Before this season, Karl lambasted Seattle's management so much ? particularly team president Wally Walker ? that the NBA fined Karl about $100,000.

When Coach Nate McMillan visited his one-time mentor yesterday before shoot-around, it confirmed that Karl's animosity had subsided.

"I knew he was over Seattle this morning when I walked in and he didn't say anything ... about our front office," McMillan said. "The NBA has taken a lot of money from him. He realizes that it's over. He has a job to do here in Milwaukee, and he's built this organization up. And it's time to move forward."

One development that Karl has noted with interest is Gary Payton's increased leadership. It was the worst aspect of Payton's game when Karl coached him.

"You have good leadership and you have bad leadership," said Karl, who is 2-5 against his former team. "You have to choose which way you want to go. I think as he gets old he's choosing the good path more often than that crazy path that he would take."

Payton didn't handle losing constructively, Karl said, but even that had an admirable quality.

"His leadership, even in a negative load, was passionate toward winning," Karl said. "You want players to feel pain when they lose. We have too many players now when we walk out of there, we don't feel they are feeling the pain. Gary, you know he feels the pain.

"Sometimes he's expressive and explosive and that can be chaotic. But right now we want guys that feel the pain instead of those guys who are laughing five minutes after they got their (butts) kicked."

Yesterday's game at a glance

Player of the game: Brent Barry has the sweetest stroke on the Sonics. And last night, it was in top form as Barry made 11 of 14 shots, including 6 of 8 from three-point range, to score a team-high 29. Just as impressive were Barry's 10 rebounds and tough defense against Ray Allen.

Top reserve: Desmond Mason, only 6 feet 5, played like a big man on the boards. Seattle needed to improve its rebounding and the second-year swingman focused on the boards to snag nine rebounds.

Key to the game: The Sonics withstood the fatigue of playing the second of back-to-back games to perform with high energy. Seattle was outrebounded 43-40 but the difference was negligible because Seattle is a weak rebounding team.

Next: Tomorrow, 5 p.m., against the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse.