Babcock dismisses talk of acquiring Sprewell - AJC

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Babcock dismisses talk of acquiring Sprewell

By MICHAEL LEE

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Boston -- The Hawks were supposed to get a jolt Friday with the arrival of center Theo Ratliff at Shaw's Pro Summer League. They were stunned early in the day with a report of trade talks involving Jason Terry.

Neither turned out to be true.

Ratliff was closing on a home in Atlanta Friday, but the time was moved from noon to 3 p.m., making it impossible for him to catch a flight and play in the Hawks' game against Orlando. Ratliff, who is rehabbing an injured hip that limited him to just three games last season, is expected to play Saturday and Sunday.

"If he can get here, he will [play]," Hawks coach Lon Kruger said.

"We would have liked to see him tonight, but it's not a huge deal," Hawks general manager Pete Babcock said. "We've seen him every day in Atlanta, he's in great shape, he's 100 percent. It's unusual for a player of his status to even want to play. This was something he initiated. It's really more for him than for us to evaluate him."

But with Ratliff gone, Babcock assumed the role of defensive specialist, swatting away a report in the New York Daily News that had Hawks rising star Terry in the middle of a three-team including the Knicks' Latrell Sprewell and either Cleveland's Andre Miller or Minnesota's Wally Szczerbiak.

"That's just one that was out of the blue," Babcock said, adamantly. "I'll tell you how valid this stuff is, [Hawks president Stan Kasten] called me this morning and wanted to know why I hadn't told him we were making the move. I told him, 'I don't know anything about it.'

"We would trade anybody on our team, if it made us better and normally, I wouldn't comment on conversations that we've had with other teams," Babcock said, "but I have not had a conversation, to date, about Jason Terry in any way shape or form -- with the exception of one team, prior to the draft, inquiring about Jason for their draft pick. That's the only conversation I've had about Jason Terry in the last two months.

"So all these statements that we've been trying to trade him since we got [Dan] Dickau. There's absolutely no truth to that," he said.

The Knicks have been shopping Sprewell heavily this summer -- his name has been mentioned in trades with Milwaukee and Detroit in the last week -- but Babcock scoffed at any chance of him playing in Atlanta. After Sprewell's suspension for choking former Golden State coach P.J. Carlesimo in December 1997, Babcock said that Sprewell would never wear a Hawks jersey.

"Those statements always come back to bite me, but I still believe that," Babcock said. "It's unfair to compare players, but we went against our standards to a degree with [J.R.] Rider a few years ago. We rolled the dice and we lost big time on it. We would have to think very hard about bending again."

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