RICK BONNELL AND MICHELLE CROUCH of the Charlotte Observer report: The NBA will start considering a request from basketball legend Larry Bird after the playoffs end this summer to place an expansion team in Charlotte, Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said Tuesday.

Granik said he has no idea how long the process will take, but that no team could be awarded to Charlotte without an "absolute guarantee" of a new arena.

"If Charlotte is prepared to do an arena deal, their chances would be pretty good," he said. "This requires that the city is willing to step up and build a new arena in a deal that an ownership group can live with."

Several city leaders have said they're willing to build an arena if the NBA guarantees Charlotte a team.

Bird, former Boston Celtics coach M.L. Carr and Boston-area millionaire Steve Belkin have contacted the league about putting an expansion team here.

Granik said Bird's presence helps Charlotte's chances. "Larry Bird has been great on everything he has done in this league, so there's no doubt about it, it would be good to have him back."

The league would have to accept an ownership group -- and that group would have to negotiate a lease with the city to play in a new arena -- before a franchise would be awarded to Charlotte, Granik said.

It would be logistically impossible for an expansion team to play here next season, Granik said, and "extremely difficult" for a team to play here in 2003-04, "but I don't want to rule that out."

The league has received no other requests for putting an expansion team in Charlotte since granting the Hornets permission to move to New Orleans earlier this month, Granik said.