Hubie Brown believes in Jason Williams, in spite of his rocky past.

``He's a different dude than you think,'' Brown, the Memphis Grizzlies coach, said of his star guard.

Williams returned to Sacramento this week to face the Kings, the team for which he played three seasons after they selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft.

Brown had to answer many of Williams' skeptics at Arco Arena, but the coach was quick to point out that Williams has come a long way in six pro seasons since he was a young rookie out of Florida. Williams has cursed at fans and had other emotional tirades.

``Is he a different guy than when he was here?'' Brown said. ``Look, he's 28 years old now, he's married, he has a 2-year-old son. I think there are more things in the formula than people want to look at. The bottom line is the player always has got to want to do the change.''

The Grizzlies just don't want him to change too much on the court _ aside from continuing to focus on playing better on the road and penetrating into the paint in transition instead of settling for a pull-up 3-pointer.

``I've been around pro basketball a long time, coached a lot of great players,'' Brown said. ``This guy has one of the highest IQs that I've been around. He sees all 10 people, he catches every call by the opposition and relays it to the bench. He has excellent recommendations out of offenses and defenses that we're doing. He's totally in tune since the first day I came here. ...

``And we still think there's another level for him to go to, and we're constantly prodding for that. We're not satisfied. We feel he's got a whole other step he can give because there's no one in the game _ from circle to circle _ quicker in basketball than him.''

During his decades in basketball, Brown has learned not to judge his players.

``I remember when everybody cringed when I went to New York and two days before we opened up we traded Sugar Richardson, one of the most popular players, for Bernard King,'' Brown recalled. ``Everybody said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you guys doing here?' Perfect citizen. Second year led the league in scoring, third year was leading the league in scoring. Shot it at 56 percent. His percentage was astronomical. ... Never late, never fined, great team player, an assassin in the last 30 seconds of every game. Never talked.

``Now, I don't prejudge anybody. I learned a great lesson with that because I didn't prejudge him. I let him come to us and then fit in what we were doing.''

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DURABLE OLD GUYS: New Lakers Karl Malone and Gary Payton have shown amazing endurance in their careers.

The 40-year-old Malone is in his 19th NBA season, the first 18 with Utah. He hasn't missed a regular-season game in 10 seasons, played in all but one game in six seasons, and sat out two games in each of two seasons.

Payton, 35, played 12{ seasons with Seattle and a half-season with Milwaukee before joining the Lakers this season. He played the full schedule nine times while in Seattle, missed one game in each of two seasons, missed two games last season while playing with the Sonics and Bucks, and missed three in the 2000-01 season.

Oh, yeah, Malone and Payton have played in every Lakers game so far this season.

Of the 10 games Malone has missed in his career, six were because of suspensions, meaning he has missed only four because of injuries. He has been slowed by a sore hamstring much of this season but hasn't missed a game.

``These guys just don't miss,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``I think that's infectious, and I think it's great for us.''

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BROWN'S RETURN TO PHILLY: Philadelphia 76ers chairman Ed Snider called into a television program this week to pump former coach Larry Brown before Brown returned to town with the Detroit Pistons.

Snider wanted to focus on the positives Brown brought to Philly.

Brown is considered a traitor by many fans after leaving the franchise following its playoff loss to the Pistons.

``I like to focus on what Larry did for our franchise,'' Snider said. ``When he took over the franchise, we were, I think, a mess. This guy straightened it out and took us to the Finals one year. We are now a very respectable franchise, and I give a tremendous amount of the credit to Larry Brown.''

The Hall of Fame coach was booed when he walked onto the court before the game Wednesday night, and the Pistons went on to lose 90-86. One fan held a sign reading, ``Yo Larry, Stuff It'' on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Brown's six seasons with the 76ers marked his longest tenure with any team in his 31-year coaching career. Brown had two years left in his contract that paid him $6 million per season and they didn't part on good terms.

When Brown left, he said he didn't know what his title was with the 76ers and added he didn't have a final say on personnel as he would have liked.

``Let's assume he said it and let's assume it was a poor choice of words, but that still doesn't erase everything that he did for the organization,'' Snider said.

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AP Sports Writer John Nadel in Los Angeles contributed to this story.