Tyronne Hill was a key member of the Sixers team that went to the NBA Finals two seasons ago, but was then traded to the Cavaliers for forward Matt Harpring (now with the Jazz).  While the trade hurt Hill, he might soon be back in the Sixers fold after his wish to be waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers was granted yesterday.

The player who might play a major role in getting Hill back in Philadelphia may be Monty Williams, coach Larry Brown distressed at his decision not to dress for the game.

Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that Williams, in uniform earlier in the evening, decided against playing because of recurring problems with his surgically repaired left knee. He has appeared in just seven games all season; he played 5 minutes in the first half of Sunday night's victory over Cleveland after having three tubes of fluid drained from the knee.

"I don't think we can go much longer like this," Brown said. "It's not fair to the team, it's not fair to Monty. If he's going to come one day and want to give it a try and then the next day can't go, we can't overcome that. We've got to just figure this thing out. It's been this way all year with so many different people."

Other teams in the hunt for Hill's services include New Jersey, Dallas, San Antonio and the Lakers.

"Tyrone and I will talk about it and make a decision about what he wants to do, probably sometime [today]," Bartelstein said. "He has great feelings for Larry Brown, [general manager] Billy King and the players there, but it's a tough call."

Dallas guard Nick Van Exel is ready to appeal his $20,000 fine handed down by the league for cursing at a referee writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News, Van Exel claiming his comments were made in retaliation.

Van Exel said Tuesday that he did call Foster "a [expletive] ... coward." But he only did so after Foster did some agitating of his own, Van Exel said.

"That was right after he told me I need to worry about getting out of the second round of the playoffs," Van Exel said.

So much for the refs being nonconfrontational as trained.

News Wire reports on former Nugget Tariq Abdul-Wahad and his stance on war w/ Iraq.

Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports: With the NBA's trading deadline only hours away, the Dallas Mavericks are after Miami Heat forward Brian Grant.

Sources close to the team said it is likely that Grant would be packaged with point guard Travis Best inexchange for Nick Van Exel and center Evan Eschmeyer.

Grant, who turns 31 on March 5, is averaging a career-best 10.7 rebounds and just under 10 points per game this season.

The sources said that while the Mavericks have not shut the door on other possibilities, the Grant deal is the only thing on their front burner. While the swap has not been OK'd by either team, it makes sense for both.

The Mavs would get the frontcourt player they so desperately need and Miami would be dumping Grant's contract for a shorter one (Van Exel's).

Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune reports: Thursday's trading deadline is only a day away and several teams are working the phones trying to get a deal done.

League sources say the Bulls are talking to the Heat about guard Eddie Jones, who almost signed with Chicago nearly three years ago.

However, the Heat want 5 million expiring contracts, something the Bulls do not have.

Smith suggests a deal that would include forwards Eddie Robinson and Marcus Fizer for Jones. Either Jamal Crawford or Fred Hoiberg would likely be included to make the numbers work.

He also mentions that a deal could get held up by management's concern that Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, and Jay Williams could all command maximum contracts when they become free agents but that is unlikely.

Miami is also talking to teams about Jones and forward Brian Grant.

Now, on to some other teams.

The Atlanta Hawks are saying they'll deal Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff. Miami is said to be interested, along with Golden State, Philadelphia, Memphis, Orlando and the New York Knicks.

Then, it appears that Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban wants Gilbert Arenas in Denver.

With the Warriors desperate to acquire expiring contracts inorder to make a competitive offer to Arenas, One insider said  Cuban is trying to block the deal because he wants his friend, Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, to be able to acquire Arenas as a free agent this summer. If the Warriors are not below the salary cap by 6-8 million, they will likely lose Arenas to the Nuggets. Right now, all they can do is offer him the league average salary, which will be close to $5 million next season.

While, the Nuggets should have around $18-20 million to spend.

Still, it's going to be extremely difficult to get so many expiring deals.

Finally, Most executives expect the 76ers to start the dealing soon with Derrick Coleman possibily the first to go.

Chris Broussard of the New York Times reports: With the trade deadline approaching, Knicks Coach Don Chaney is not thrilled about what his team is being offered.

"As far as trades are concerned, there's been talk all year," Chaney said. "There hasn't been a big change. If a new name is thrown in there, I would probably be surprised. But it's been the same teams calling, trying to get a deal, trying to get a bargain."

For months, Dallas has been trying to engage the Knicks in discussions about a Shawn Bradley/Nick Van Exel trade for Latrell Sprewell and Kurt Thomas, and one Western Conference official said he believed Dallas would be desperate to make a trade before the deadline because of its recent mediocre play.

New York has shown no interest in the Dallas purposal.

The Knicks have also had discussions with Philadelphia about a Sprewell-for-Keith Van Horn swap but that deal broke off because the Knicks wanted more than just Van Horn.

The Sixers could not include any first-round picks in the near future because they already have traded their first this year to Boston (Top-13 protected) and another one to Denver that can first be taken in 2005.

However, two league officials said the two sides were still talking.

It is also stated that Philadelphia might have some interest in Charlie Ward and Othella Harrington.

All in all, Sprewell appears to be staying put. "I wouldn't be surprised if we made a deal, but I would be surprised if we traded Sprewell," one Knicks official said.

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports: Rockets forward James Posey confirmed Tuesday that he was involved in an incident at the NBA Players Association party Saturday in Atlanta, but said he was not in a fight and that Pacers forward Ron Artest was not involved.

It actually seems like this whole alleged incident was blown out of proportion.

Posey said little about the incident other than he considered it blown out of proportion. Several players association sources said Posey and close friend and Mavericks guard Nick Van Exel were detained by police after an argument with security at the party.

According to Feigen's sources, a ballroom at the Georgia World Congress Center became overcrowded after former President Bill Clinton arrived and many of the guests moved from a concert room to the room downstairs. Security was allowing only small numbers of guests to enter at a time and would not allow all of Posey's and Van Exel's group to enter together, starting the argument.

Posey and Van Exel were taken from the area in handcuffs, but released. There were no arrests or charges.

"Everything was going all right. The police felt like they needed to have the power. They started making moves, stuff like that. They felt they had to do it with a couple players, and that was it. It's embarrassing. It made it like we were starting trouble. Everybody right there knew we didn't do anything. We were very innocent. If you weren't there and you hear the story, you ... form your opinions about the players and the people involved."

Though he's not sure there's anything that he can do about it, coach Don Nelson is a little confused about the penalty doled out to Utah coach Jerry Sloan for shoving referee Courtney Kirkland.

Sloan was suspended for seven games, which is a harsh punishment. But there was no fine incurred by Sloan or the Jazz.

That's where there could be an apparent double standard.

Nelson and son Donnie Nelson were suspended for two games at the beginning of the season. The Mavericks were fined $150,000 and Nelson was docked two games' pay, about $110,000, for what the NBA determined to be improper scouting in Europe.

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In this season that is taking on a magical look, the Mavericks had their first postgame group hug Monday night.

This might have been the sweetest of their 38 victories, because the Mavericks took a physical pounding aggravated by officials who may have been borrowed from the NFL.

They survived when Nick Van Exel uncorked a cold-blooded 3-pointer from the right corner with 13.1 seconds left for a rugged 92-90 victory over the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center.

Nick Van Exel hit the game-winning shot on Monday, and then he took a few shots at the Delta Center fans.

"We expect the close calls to go to Utah and once the crowd started crying, the refs are going to tend to feed on that," Van Exel said.

"They say we're crybabies, but they do all the booing. I heard about 20,000 people booing all night. I don't know who's the real crybabies."