With 29 teams and a league with international financial interests to worry about, NBA commissioner David Stern still has time to be concerned with individual teams, especially those not doing well. Count the Hawks in that group.

"I don't talk about it a lot, but I worry a lot," Stern said. "It's a tough subject. I think that the Hawks have been unsuccessful on the court recently. There's a sense of apathy that sets in with the fans. They sit back and say they want to see things become different, and I believe the Hawks thought things would be different. So the playoff guarantee was a modest manifestation . . . to motivate fans to see things differently.

"They had gone out and gotten Theo Ratliff and Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Glenn Robinson and Jason Terry, and this seemed to be the making of a solid contending team."

But the Hawks are 11th in the Eastern Conference and must finish at least eighth to meet their preseason playoff guarantee to season-ticker holders.

Injury list on back burner

With a thaw in the relationship between the NBA and the Players Association, the Hawks appear no closer to getting relief on the injury list impasse they have battled for years.

Unlike most teams in the league, the Hawks refuse to put players who are not hurt on the list, and growing sympathy in the NBA office made that a priority issue last summer, though the players refused to cooperate.

Union executive director Billy Hunter questions the need for immediate action on the issue. "What's the rush?" he said. "What's the hurry? I don't understand that."

Hunter said his principal concern is freedom of movement for players.

"With the current injured list, if a player isn't hurt he can demand to be activated or released," Hunter said, adding he fears that they would lose that if the system changes.

Frazier in class by himself

Walt Frazier is the only Atlanta native voted among the sport's 50 greatest players. Asked why an area as large as Atlanta would produce only one player at that level, the current Knicks broadcaster told the New York Daily News:

"The corner got them. We had a lot of good players, guys who had talent. But they wouldn't go off the street. Some went off to school and got homesick and came back. I was one who left. But you also have to remember, the other thing about Atlanta is that football is king. When I was growing up, you got more coverage playing football."

Frazier played for Howard High and was the quarterback on the football team.

Etc.

Nice touch: Yao Ming was plucked from the Rookie Challenge when he was voted to the starting team for Sunday's All-Star Game. But in a classy show of solidarity, Yao put on a coat and tie and sat on the bench with his fellow rookies Saturday night. . . . Ben Wallace joined his East teammates Saturday night after his mother's funeral in Alabama. . . . Hawks general manager Pete Babcock scouted the Maryland-Georgia Tech game and passed on Sunday night's game. . . . All Hawks employees paid for their game tickets. This was also the policy for Washington and Philadelphia employees in previous years.