A month after Karl Malone and Gary Payton made their cut-rate deals with the Lakers, sacrificing cash for the opportunity for an NBA title, Reggie Miller re-upped with the Indiana Pacers, for whom he'd played his entire career. Miller then proclaimed a purity of purpose and organizational devotion.

"I didn't want to be like some other guys," Miller said, "who jump on another team's bandwagon just to get a ring."

Take that, fellas.

"If I was coming in here and playing 10 minutes a night, that's riding a coattail," Malone said. "I'll tell you what, I wasn't pulling against the Lakers, but it made my decision a lot easier when they didn't win. When I heard Reggie make his decision, I like Reggie and I won't elaborate, but I'll say this: He had opportunity to do what I did and take less money. But he chose to make more money and stay where he was at. So, God bless him and God bless me."

Miller, who earned $12 million with the Pacers last season, agreed to a two-year contract for about $5 million per season. It is believed the Lakers offered Miller the same deal they did Malone and Payton: Play for less, earn more.

"At some point, somebody had to make some statement to say it's not all about the money all the time," Malone said. "Now, I don't want to hide the fact it wouldn't have been nice to make $10 million a year. Don't get me wrong. But how is that to the regular fan now?

On billboards, he's hawking Finlandia malt beverages. On television, he's enthusing about sandwiches made from Holsum bread. Newspapers run his photo almost daily lately, including a full-page shot of an up-and-under reverse layup on the back page of a San Juan tabloid last week.

And every time Carlos Arroyo ventures out in public in his homeland, crowds of raucous fans shout his name, snap photos and ask for autographs.

In Utah, the Jazz's buried-on-the-bench third-string point guard is virtually anonymous out of uniform. But here in his hometown, like virtually everywhere on this basketball-mad island of 3 million people, Arroyo's fame rivals anything his former teammates John Stockton and Karl Malone encounter on the mainland.

"Yeah, but John and Karl are known all over the world," Arroyo says. "This is my home."

It's a home that has sent only six players to the NBA, none with much success so far. It's a home that, virtually alone among Caribbean locales, prefers basketball above soccer, baseball or any other sport. And because of that history, it is a home that has tracked the point guard's college and professional progress in the United States in remarkable detail -- "even when I'm not playing," Arroyo says with a laugh.

"He is an icon here," says Leo Arill, a San Juan journalist and acquaintance of Arroyo's.

"Just the fact that he is there, in the NBA, makes him popular. People are proud when a Puerto Rican is part of sports on the [U.S.] mainland, and he was one of the most popular players already. Everywhere now, it's 'Carlos, Carlos, Carlos.' "

According to published reports, the Golden State Warriors are on the verge of signing veteran free-agent swingman Calbert Cheaney to a one-year contract.
Cheaney, 6-foot-7, averaged 8.6 points per game for the Utah Jazz a year ago, including shooting 40 percent from 3-point range.

The former Indiana University star was Utah's starting off guard for most of last season, but is expected to replace Bob Sura and serve as a backup for the Warriors' Jason Richardson and Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Last year the Warriors opened the season with five players age 22 or younger. This offseason they've added four players with at least 10 years of NBA experience, and here comes another one.

The Warriors are expected to sign free-agent Calbert Cheaney as early as today, a league source said. The team confirmed negotiations are continuing but would not specify a time when the deal will be completed.

The 6-foot-7 swingman, who will be entering his 11th season, probably will sign a one-year contract for $1.07 million, the minimum for a player of his experience. The Warriors would be responsible for a little less than $700,000, with the league picking up the rest.

Cheaney, projected as a backup at shooting guard and small forward, had the NBA's highest shooting percentage (49.9) among guards last season, when he started 74 games and averaged 8.6 points per game for the Utah Jazz.

In the last 14 months, Amy Hall has received a kidney, gained and lost a pancreas and still managed to retain her unique perspective, which probably was inevitable.

No one else has ever accepted a kidney from an active NBA player, even if it was her brother, Greg Ostertag of the Utah Jazz.

No one else is as liable to show you her scars, either.

"Before long," she says, "I'm gonna look like Rand McNally."

Not that you'd want to take the road Amy Hall walks.

After her nationally-publicized transplant last year, Hall recovered fairly quickly. But the new kidney only repaired some of the damage done to Hall, who lives in Allen with her husband, Steven.

The essential problem remains: Diagnosed more than 20 years ago with juvenile diabetes, she needs a new pancreas.

The Jazz missed out on their No. 1 free-agent target this summer. But Elton Brand says Utah might not realize what a narrow miss it was.

Brand seriously considered the Jazz's six-year, $82 million offer and for a time, at least, "there was a great chance" that he would accept it.

"The Jazz were right there at the end," said Brand, who is helping Team USA qualify for the Athens Olympics at this week's qualifying tournament. "It was down to the wire. I saw positives about both [Miami and Utah], and there was definitely a time where I could see myself in Utah. It was a real tough decision."

Ultimately a meaningless one, too. Brand, a former top overall pick in the NBA draft, ended up accepting an offer for an identical maximum-money contract from the Heat, but as a restricted free agent, his old team retained the right to match it and keep him. The L.A. Clippers waited only a few days before doing so.

Still, Brand said, he was tempted by more than Utah's money. The Jazz offered the four-year veteran a chance to operate within the same offense that helped make the team's last power forward a future Hall of Famer.

"I really liked the way that Karl Malone touched the ball a lot. I felt pretty good about that. I could see myself fitting right in there," Brand said. "They showed me how I would get the ball, [and] they hoped they had [free-agent guard] Corey Maggette maybe coming in. They play defense and they're there every year, always in the playoffs. It was a really good offer."

The Kings, moving to replenish their frontcourt depth, signed journeyman free agent Tony Massenburg to a one-year deal Friday.

A veteran of 11 previous seasons and 11 franchises, including the Utah Jazz last season, Massenburg is most comfortable as a power forward but has played center at 6-foot-9, 250 pounds.

Massenburg also had advanced conversations with the Dallas Mavericks, until their trade with the Golden State Warriors, and the Minnesota Timberwolves before finalizing a deal with Sacramento.

"It was a pretty easy decision for me," he said. "I wanted to go someplace where I would win and have a chance to win a title. They play a style of basketball I like. They run, and the guys play off each other."

The signing puts the roster at 12 and gives the Kings the reserve big man they had been seeking after trading Scot Pollard to the Indiana Pacers and Keon Clark to Utah, where, ironically, he will get some of Massenburg's minutes.

Karl Malone needed confirmation. At 40 years old and with 18 seasons of N.B.A. experience, he was not sure he should feel this way. Ever since signing with the Los Angeles Lakers last month, Malone had been feeling like a child, jittery and jumpy.

He figured he should talk to Jerry Rice, the 40-year-old N.F.L. receiver who joined the Oakland Raiders two years ago after 16 seasons in San Francisco.

"I said, `Man, how am I supposed to feel?' " Malone said of the phone conversation. "And he said: `You're supposed to feel like you've been reborn again. You should feel like you feel. You should feel giddy, you should feel like a little kid in a candy store.' And that's exactly how I feel."

In his quest for a championship ring, Malone signed with the Lakers for $10 million ? $15 million less than he could have gotten from his former team, the Utah Jazz ? with $1.5 million being paid to him this season. He is also giving up precious off-season time this month to compete for the United States in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico.

Malone, at least 10 years older than everyone else on the United States team, has won two gold medals and can become the first American man to win three basketball gold medals, so he is doing this to provide experience as America seeks to return to the top of the basketball universe. The United States will face Puerto Rico in an exhibition game today at Madison Square Garden.

Denied the opportunity to step in for Chris Webber, Keon Clark now gets to take over for Karl Malone.

He's not crazy about either situation.

Actually, the Jazz's latest acquisition is enthusiastic about playing serious minutes for Utah next season, quite possibly as the team's first new starting power forward in 18 years. Just don't expect him to "replace" the future Hall of Famer who held the job before him.

"There will never be another Mailman," Clark said Thursday after stopping in Salt Lake for a physical exam that completes last week's trade with Sacramento. "I'm never compared to the Mailman -- but I can deliver."

The Jazz figure he can deliver at least the 8.2 points and 6.0 rebounds he has averaged in five NBA seasons, if not far more. As the most logical candidate to start alongside Greg Ostertag on the Jazz's front line, Clark could get the playing opportunity he has craved since joining the NBA.

"The only way you can prove you're good is to get off the bench and show what your abilities are. The times I've been able to get off the bench, I've proved to people that I have the ability," Clark said. "Every time it seems my basketball career is getting a little bleak, I go to a better opportunity and better situation for myself."

Karl Malone's mother, Shirley Jackson Malone, died Wednesday morning in Eldorado, Ark., of a massive heart attack at the age of 64, according to a Laker spokesperson.

Given the news as he boarded a team bus in New York City to attend a U.S. Olympic practice, Malone immediately left for Arkansas. A funeral is scheduled for Friday in Eldorado, Laker publicist John Black said.

Malone, who turned 40 last month, is the youngest of five children. He signed with the Lakers in July after 18 seasons with the Utah Jazz. Those who had spent time with him as the Olympic qualifying tournament approached had said they had never seen him so buoyant. His mother had not been ill, according to reports.

Before he left, Malone indicated he could return in time for the team's Monday night flight to Puerto Rico, where the 11-day tournament will be held.