Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Even after this season's NBA All-Star Weekend generated more than $50 million for the economy of the Philadelphia area, 76ers chairman Ed Snider wasn't happy. Wasn't happy at all. He said, all things considered, as long as he was in charge, the Sixers never again would apply to host the game.

The reason was simple: So few tickets for the various events were available to the Sixers' season-ticketholders, Snider thought the event wasn't worth the trouble.

Yesterday the NBA announced that Los Angeles has been chosen to host the 2004 All-Star Weekend. The commissioner explained that instead of the teams hosting the event, it would be the city, the Staples Center, the Convention Center and the Convention and Visitors Bureau that would be the hosts.

"The way we're doing it is really designed to minimize expectations with respect to great ticket [requests] for season-ticktholders," Stern said, noting that if the NBA didn't do this, "we'd just be taking Eddie Snider's troubles and squaring them, and we're not doing that."

Stern laughingly said that Snyder should be happy with the arrangement. "Ed's happy, because instead of offending one team's set of season-ticketholders, we would have had a doubleheader here."

George D. Kirkland, president and CEO of the LA Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the All-Star events there should have more economic impact than what Philadelphia experienced. "We expect that here in Los Angeles, [$50 million] is a very, very conservative estimate," Kirkland said.