The Nets continued to refuse to comment yesterday on speculation that they might trade Jason Kidd, but team officials are perturbed that talk of trading Kidd for Portland's Shareef Abdur-Rahim had been portrayed so seriously in the media, an Eastern Conference executive said.

The Nets have had cursory conversations with several teams, including Portland, about Kidd, but nothing remotely serious, the executive said. The executive said the Nets were not shopping Kidd and that their hope was to keep him.

New Jersey is baffled why Portland's president, Steve Patterson, made comments Tuesday indicating that actual trade talks involving Kidd and Abdur-Rahim had occurred. He was quoted on CBSSportsline.com as saying talks regarding the two players are "interesting, but I don't know if anything will happen."