The price of gold rises every summer for U.S. teams in international basketball competition.

For Jermaine O'Neal, the current cost is two sore knees and a blister on the ball of his left foot. He can only hope it doesn't escalate, the way it did for Reggie Miller last summer.

"This is one of the toughest training camps I've seen in awhile," O'Neal said Thursday, wearing an ice pack on each of his three sorest body parts. "It's almost nonstop."

For O'Neal and other members of the USA Basketball national team, the glamour and glory of chasing an Olympic dream ended with the opening-day photo session. Now they're encamped in a grungy fourth-floor gym at John Jay College in Manhattan, working to erase the embarrassment of last summer's sixth-place finish in the World Basketball Championship tournament in Indianapolis, which made it necessary for the U.S. team to earn an Olympic bid this summer.

The team of NBA stars, plus first-round draft pick Nick Collison, will play Puerto Rico in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden tonight. Three more practices follow before it flies to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for competition that runs from Wednesday through Aug. 31 and includes as many as 10 games in 12 days.

The Americans need to finish among the top three teams to earn a spot in the 2004 Olympics.