Rod Thorn suspects that there may be instances of tampering involving his point guard Jason Kidd.

This became an issue yesterday, when an ESPN.com report alleged that Kidd or his agent, Jeff Schwartz, have "initiated contact" with five Western Conference teams.

Thorn insisted on Thursday that he never gave Schwartz permission to pursue a trade for his client.

"No, never. I've never given him permission to broker any deal," the Nets president said yesterday. "Now, does that mean agents don't call teams? Or that I don't get calls once or twice a month from some agent who asks, 'Would you be interested in' whoever the player is? That goes on. Now, when someone calls me, I say, 'The guy's under contract, I'm not going to talk about him.' But would other guys talk to him? Yeah."

And that, as Thorn points out, "would constitute tampering, absolutely."

Thorn said he would call the league office to register a complaint, but he added that it is difficult to prove.

"But it does go on," he said. "As for whether it went on, I don't know. But probably."

Schwartz did not return phone calls.

Thorn knows that agents and GMs play the rotisserie game all the time, and there are ways to circumvent the tampering rule.

"You talk theoretically," he said. "You talk about 'X player.' Or 'a top 10 player in the league,' for instance. (Agents ask), 'Would you be interested in having him someday.' Hypothetically. It's a bad part of the business, but it goes on all he time. I'd say I get one or two calls a month from agents, who say, 'My guy is going to be a free agent, are you interested?' And GMs say, 'Yeah, I might be interested -- this is what I might pay him.' That goes on all the time, unfortunately."